


Two decades lost

by Jxjxjx



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Memory Loss, Post-Canon, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:15:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 38,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26572810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jxjxjx/pseuds/Jxjxjx
Summary: Lin dies sort of. It has a happy ending ish I promise. Its also like really basic idea that Im surprised I haven't seen.
Relationships: Lin Beifong & Suyin Beifong, Lin Beifong/Tenzin, Pema/Tenzin (Avatar), Suyin Beifong & Tenzin
Comments: 122
Kudos: 189





	1. Chapter 1

Tenzin is at city hall, a Council meeting in session. The north water tribes soon to be replacement councilman, Tarrlok, currently speaking as annoyingly as ever. The man had been here for three weeks and Tenzin couldn't stand him. Okay, so most of it was due to the fact he had hit on his wife, Lin, at his predecessors retirement party but he was also a power hungry politician. Lin had called him possessive and overprotective but Tenzin had minded much. The way Tarrlok smiled was enough for Tenzin not to trust him and to want Lin as far away as possible to him even though he knew full well that she could handle them both better than he could. They had been arguing a lot recently over seemingly everything. His father had died a year prior and his mother had moved back to the southern water tribe recently. Lin was now Chief after her mother retired and the two had yet another falling out. Things just seemed to pile up and they were taking their frustration out on each other. He wanted to move forward but Lin was as stubborn as ever. The door of the city hall burst open and Police Deputy Captain Rui walked in. He knew Lin's deputy pretty well the two had always been friends since Lin first got the force. He often went out to the bar with him, Lin and Rui's wife.

"Captain, is this important? Because if not I have to ask you to leave." The earth kingdom representative asked.

"I need to speak with councilman Tenzin privately." He said his voice was calm and… solemn as was his face Tenzin noticed. He looked distressed and he had taken off his hat.

"Well if you can't see he is busy at the moment." Tarrlok retorted impatiently. "If this is important surely the entire council should know about it."

Captain Rui heisanted. "Tenzin, I really think we should talk in private." He stresses this time.

"What is this about?" Tenzin asked standing confused.

"Tenzin…" He tried again.

Tenzin began to walk towards him, but Tarrlok protested again. "Captain, really I insist that you really must tell us all now if this involves police business."

The other council members nodded with Captain Rui seeing that he took another step towards Tenzin stopping right in front of him. "Tenzin, it is with my deepest sorrow and regret that we inform you of the death of…"

"No…" Tenzin felt his world closing in and collapsing. He didn't hear what Captain Rui was saying. Something about being sorry for his loss, he couldn't hear or think. "Where, where is she?" He manages to get out

"Come with me" Captain Rui says, waving him towards the door. Tenzin walked numbly out of city hall and got in the police car and they went to the police station. He really didn't register any of it. His head was spinning, there was no way... Lin couldn't be…. He had seen her this morning and she was fine, happy. She had joked with him about a few of the air acolytes. No, there was no way. This had to be a mistake. Rui ushered him into one of the interview rooms on the ground floor. Tenzin's mind seemed to be going impossibly slow because the two things couldn't be connected in his mind. He knew she had a dangerous job but this was Lin Biefong they were talking about. Rui put a glass of water in front of him.

"Tenzin," Rui says gently. "I'm so sorry."

Tenzin nodded mutely, staring at the water in front of him for a long moment. Rui was giving him all the time he needed. "What- how-" he struggled.

"We were called for a boat raid on the east of the city's edge. She went, we were raiding the boat and a fire bender fought us. He uh, hit the boiler by mistake. Lin saw and told us to run. We did, I thought she was behind us." Rui stopped taking a shuttering breath and trying to hold it together himself. "The explosion almost got us. I- the only reason I survived was because she blocked the door. Tenzin, I owe her my life." Rui gripped Tenzin's hand across the table. "I know that doesn't mean anything now but maybe someday it will. She saved us."

Tenzin took it all in. He couldn't say anything, his mouth opened a few times, but nothing came out. "Her body, can I?"

Rui gave him a sad look. "I'm sorry. The boat sank, we weren't able to recover her body."

Tenzin nodded again still not fully comprehending the information.

"I uh need to ask but uh her mother, I can't contact her…" Rui said awkwardly.

"I uh I think my mother will know." Tenzin swallowed.

"I'm so sorry, Tenzin. I can't imagine" he shook his head. "She was one of my closest friends. If you need anything, please let me know."

Tenzin doesn't know how he gets home, but here he is sitting down in his office picking up the phone and dialling the number.

"Hello" A soft voice comes from the other end. "hello?"

"Mom" he sobs. He can't hold it together any longer.

"Tenzin? Tenzin" His mother says concerned now. "Tenzin whats wrong?"

"Mom, Lin's- she's-" He still can't finish that sentence, his voice watery fully of tears.

Katara must have known she was either really hurt or- because she gasps. "Oh honey, I'll leave right away." Her own voice is weak. "Did you call your siblings?"

He shakes his head and Then remembers she can't see him. "No" he chokes out.

"Okay I'll tell them to come." Katara tells him. "I'll see you soon you just have to be strong okay? I love you." Tenzin can't reply. He just finally breaks down, dropping the phone. He buries his head in his hands and cries.

He can't remember the last few days he knew his siblings and mother arrived at some point and Su, Lin's sister as well but he couldn't say when or how he just knew he was no longer alone. He had to go to two funerals, the private one they had for family and close friends and then the one open to the public. He can't remember any of it or more apply he refused to remember that. He has only even admitted aloud that she was died once, when Kya had arrived. Kya had been the one to tell Su. They had never found Toph, neither Su nor Katara or Zuko had known. Tenzin didn't care who was there or who wasn't, there was only one person's who absence he felt. Lin, their last morning together they had been running late and she had given him a quick kiss and tossed an I love you over her shoulder as she ran out the door. Now there was nothing he regretted more than not grabbing her and kissing her as long and as hard as he could and of never letting her go that morning. Lin had been by his side for his entire life there was no one he trusted more, no one he loved more. Now there was no one sleeping beside him at night. He didn't have to fight her for the last dumping or for blankets. He felt the hole in his heart and would for every day of the rest of his life.


	2. Chapter 2

Jinora was with Opal, Kai and Korra in the earth kingdom. They had defended Kuriva a few weeks before, but was still mopping up some resistance and spreading the news to the more remote regions of the earth kingdom. They landed in the mountains of the neighboring province to the United Republic. The area had apparently seen some of the worst fighting under Kuvira and she had warned them about the local commander, who was very ambitious. They had brought some aid with them as well. Jinora was happy about the mission all of the political of reasserting power and rebuilding republic city was boring to her and Ikki was being at brat at home her and mom also fighting, getting away was going to be nice. They had chosen a remote village where the resistance was supposedly headquartered. It was a small quiet seemingly undescript village that probably looked the same when her grandpa Aang was her age. The air bison landed in the center of town, several people came out of their homes. Jinora jumped off one of the two bison they had brought.

"We welcome you." An old man bowed to them. "I am Chief Shun."

"Thank you, Chief Shun. I am Avatar Korra." Korra said, greeting the man she made introductions for the rest of them as well and began to explain why they were here. "We heard that you have been resisting the Earth Empire for some time now."

"Yes we have." The chief confirmed. "I am happy to hear you defended them in Republic city but they haven't stopped way out here. I'm afraid."

"Yes, well, we are here to help you make sure they are gone for good now." Korra told him.

"Then you should speak to Kyra, she leads the fighting effort, whether she admits it or not." The old man laughed, he began to lead them away from the square. "You are airbenders, correct?"

"Yes" Jinora nodded.

"We have an airbender here," Shun told them. "Kyra's daughter actually."

"We would love to meet her, maybe she'd like to come train with us after this is over." Jinora told him, surprised to hear of an air bender out here most had found there way to air temple island in the last few years.

"I don't think she needs much training," Shun laughed. "But who am I. I am no master of any element, much less air." They walked up to an older woman sitting around with a few others. They all were dressed in simple earth kingdom clothing pants and tunics, nothing fancy except for one woman who also wore metal arm and shin guards. "Kyra," an older woman with graying hair looked up. She had sharp features and two scars on her right cheek.

"Yeah?" She said in a gruff voice, looking over the newcomers. Jinora held back a shiver as the woman's, Kyra's eyes scanned them intensely. It was like she was reading their entire story and completely unimpressed with what she found.

"This is avatar Korra and a few airbenders. They are here to help with the earth empire." Chief Shun explained.

The other villagers all looked at them with awe and admiration, Kyra just grunts. "We'll see." flicking her eyes away. Jinora got the impression that she wouldn't give them another look, she went back to eating her apple.

Korra was a little taken back by the woman. "Uh yeah, we beat Kuriva well enough."

Kyra raised her eyebrow without looking at them. "Yeah with an army, it's different here." studying the apple in her hand as if it held all the answers. "You don't have soldiers, you have civilians and we are out number 15 to 1 even with you." flicking her eyes back to them to give them a hard stare at the end.

"How were you able to hold out that long?" Jinora asked. She was curious about the woman, there was something about her that made her pause. She couldn't place it, was it something she had heard about or something she had seen before.

"By fighting smart." Kyra said dryly.

"Kyra, here is the main reason." Chief Shun added. "And her students she trains our earth benders and main for the surrounding village come to train with her. She and her daughter are better than any of Kuriva's men."

"I thought you said her daughter was an airbender?" Opal piped up.

Kyra narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. "Yeah, she is My daughter." She said her tone was wary.

"I would love to meet her." Jinora told her, shooting her a smile.

Kyra seemed to consider it for a moment, weighing her options. "Fine. follow me." They walked around the corner to a home with a small courtyard inside where a teenager sat reading. Maybe Korra's age, maybe a year or two older sat talking.

"Hey mom" She said standing seeing them enter. She was dressed in dark green sweatpants and beige tunics similar to her mother. "This is my daughter Asha. You can introduce yourself to her." Kyra said, still standoffish.

"I'm avatar Korra, This is master Jinora." Korra told them. "And that's Opal and Kai. We hear one of you is an airbender."

"Yeah I am." Asha said stepping forward she did not wear the metal her mother Did.

"We're here to help you defeat the earth empire but since you're an airbender we thought you might also want to learn." Jinora told the girl.

Asha's eyes darted towards her mother. "Uh sure, I could always learn more."

"Uh shouldn't we worry about the earth empire?" Kai asked, rubbing The back of his head.

"No, we can't do anything until two days from now." Kyra said.

"Why not?" Korra asked.

"Because in two days they will come to collect taxes they have to come up the mountain. We'll have an advantage." Kyra told them.

Jinora began teaching Asha while the rest of them sat in the shade of the wall. "Okay, why don't we spar and I can see what you've figured out." Jinora told the older girl. The girl could generate wind alright. She was powerful and her movement while not graceful definitely showed some training or skill. She was far better than Kai and Opal had been when they had first started. She used a lot of adapted earth bending moves which wasn't surprising considering her mother was an earth bender, but there were also times where it almost looked like she had been taught by her father, Jinora thought. One move in particular caught her so off guard because that was definitely an airbending move. Asha spun out of the way, her hand moving away from each other, one going above her head, the other to her waist palms facing the earth and sky. Before stepping forward and flipping her hands but the one at her waist flipped over and out towards Jinora blasting air right at her. Jinora almost didn't make it out of the way in time, the blast catching her partially off the shoulder.

"Where did you learn that?" Korra called from the shade, eyes wide.

Asha shrugged. "Mom taught me." All eyes now went to Krya.

"How did you learn airbending?" Jinora asked.

Kyra shrugged. "Just knew it."

"But the only people who would know that is my dad and maybe some of the other acolytes." Jinora said, confused.

"I don't know what to tell you kid, I've always known it. I don't know how."

"Did you ever meet my dad or-"

"No kid I've lived in this village since before you were born and before that an even smaller fishing village. No airbender there." Kyra said.

Chief Shun walked in. "Hello, I would like to invite all of you to dinner." He told them as if on cue Kai's stomach growled.

He laughed. "Dinner would be wonderful." He told the chief. Jinora's mind was still spinning how did some girl from the middle of nowhere already know airbending. Asha was clearly naturally talented but talent doesn't teach you airbending form. Kyra too made no sense. How did she know airbending forms? There was no way, you could possibly know that without studying and there were very few places to do that as most of the text had been destroyed 200 years ago. Certainly a small mountain village then a small fishing village was no place to learn such things. Maybe she was lying to them.

Throughout dinner Kyra was quiet but her daughter seemed to open up more as the night went on though. Kyra was an earthbender and a metal bender apparently, her metalbending made it harder for the earth empire to capture people with metal bindings like normal. Asha also provided another wrinkle for them while not the master her mom was, airbender weren't common and most people found them hard to fight. They also learned that the two women had lived here all their life which was confirmed by the chief meaning Kyra must had learned the airbending form before the two were born 20 or so years ago.

"Hey Jinora?" Opal said coming up to her later that night before they went to sleep.

"Yeah?"

"Is it just me or does Kyra kinda look like my mom?" Opal asked in a low voice.

Jinora was taken aback she hadn't thought about it. But the two women did share sharp features, both were also the same height and around the same age. "Maybe a little," Jinora said unsure.

"Really because I really see it and she acts like grandma Toph used to." Opal said.

"But Toph didn't have any other kids." Jinora said. "Your mom and Lin who's dead." Jinora knew only a little about Lin who had died six years before she'd been born. She knew she was her father's first wife, but he never brought her up. She suspected it was because her dad still missed her dearly, maybe even still loved her.

"Maybe she's a cousin or something." Jinora suggested.

"Maybe" Opal said, lying down but not convinced.

* * *

When she woke up the first time and only saw a blinding light. It hurt her head, she would just make out a shanty wooden roof above her before she passed out again. She couldn't remember anything while she was out but she had feelings that wouldn't leave her. Panic, fear, sorrow, about what she didn't know, nor did she know how long she was out. When she woke up the second time it took less time for her eyes to adjust to the light. She was in a dingy hut, she had no idea where she was. She was laying on a hard bed in the corner of the hut. She saw an old woman hunched over in the corner. She tried to move but that brought back the pain and she passed out once again. The final time she awoke it was to see the old woman's gnarled face looking over her. She silently put a cup to her lips and she drank. The water felt like a god sent to her parched lips and bone dry throat.

"What happened?" She rasped out.

"Oh, oh you know, I'd found ya." the woman said it sounded like she was speaking with water in her mouth. She also looked like she was 100 years old.

"What happened to me?" She asked, confused.

"You ta know not'a I" The woman said.

"I don't remember," She said slowly. "I don't remember anything."

"Chats you's head." the woman tapped her own head.

She reached her hand gingerly up to feel a bandage around her head, even the gentle touch hurt still. "Who am I?" She asked.

"I no know" The woman shook her head and handed her some concoction to drink.

She figured it was some kind of medicine and drank it. "I don't know who I am." she said slowly. The old woman just ignored her and waddled back over to her pot and kept cooking.


	3. Chapter 3

It's two days after Lin's funeral that Tenzin finds Su half drunk with a bottle of whisky. She is on the edge of the island sitting on a rock overlooking his father's statue. He had come out here to hide, to be alone, to be out of their house, and all the reminders that she isn't here. He felt claustrophobic about it somehow, his mother, sister and brother all there at every turn with a look of pity he couldn't stand. He almost moves on before she can notice but he hesitates for too long.

"Come to drag me back?" Su asks in a surly voice.

"No" He says, coming to sit beside her. "I can't be there." Su offers him the bottle. Monks don't drink. Airbenders don't drink, but he doesn't care about any of that and he takes the bottle. The liquid amber burns his throat and he coughs, but the numbness that starts to build a minute later is worth it. They pass the bottle between them for a few moments, Su takes larger swigs than him.

"It's just like her, you know?" Su says eventually.

"How?" Tenzin is surprised he has to make an effort to keep from slurring his words.

"She had to spite me, one last time. To have the last say. To prove her point." Su swings to hands in the air, almost spilling the bottle.

Tenzin takes the bottle back. "She used to joke that it would be me to get myself killed one day by doing something stupid. I'd finally prove my head is filled with air."

Su snatches the bottle back from Tenzin aggressively. "She hated me." She tips her back and drinks until she starts to cough.

Tenzin shakes his head. "No she didn't"

"Yes she did"

"No she didn't"

"How would you know!" Su yells. "You were off on your enlightenment trip." waving her arms again as if to punctuate the point.

Tenzin knew what she was talking about. There was only one thing that it could be. The thing that had been the final straw in the Beifong family. "She told me" Tenzin snapped back. "I held her when she broke down finally telling me about the scars and everytime she and Toph fought I was the one she came crying to!"

"See, She fucking hated me" Su muttered taking another swig.

Somewhere in Tenzin's mind he wondered how full the now ¾ empty bottle was when Su had started. "No, she didn't. She told me she didn't hate you." Su gave him a doubtful look. "At least as of 6 months ago she didn't hate you."

"I doubt that. I did nothing but make her life hell." Su sulks. "She was right to hate me."

"Yeah well, she didn't she forgave you probably never really did." Tenzin shrugs, wrestling the bottle away from her and taking another sip. "She said she felt like she should have done better by you. Been a better sister, spent more time and maybe things would have been different."

"You're telling me she talked about her feelings? It's a nice thought," Su said darkly.

"She did." Tenzin told her, taking a big gulp of liquor before telling her. "Right before we agreed to try for a kid. She said she hated growing up raising you instead of mom and she felt like she failed you because of what happened but she loved you."

"Fuck Toph it was all her fault anyways not Lin's job to raise me." Tenzin nodded along with the younger Beifong. It was a point he had agreed with Lin on as well. "Shit, Tenzin. Her kid is dead and I doubt she knows. Hell she probably won't care." Su scoffs.

"Shit" Tenzin says part of him wants to tell Su that her mother does care because he has told Lin that numerous times before. But Lin's death was international news; the fire royal family had come even Toph must know and yet where was she. "My fucking family."

He isn't aware he has said it out loud until he hears Su laughs cynically. "Yeah fuck this family. Some shit show we are, huh? My mom doesn't come to her kids funeral. I got arrested, exiled and then joined a circus. Kya's off doing spirits knows what. It's a miracle Bumi's still in the united forces. Hell, your father got himself frozen in an iceberg for a hundred years. You, you might be the best of all of us, Tenzin." Su waves a finger under his nose.

It was Tenzin's turn to snort. "No I failed everyone. My dad, Lin…"

"Cheers to being failures then," Su says, handing the bottle back to him.

"Cheers" He says, raising it to his lips.

"I can't believe she's fucking dead" Su says rubbing her hand over her face.

Tenzin nods in agreement. "I keep waiting for her to slip into bed next to me every night. To be right around every corner," He takes a shaky breath. "And she's not"

"I love her. I know I was a pain in the ass but she is- was my big sister and I loved her. I wished I told her that." Su says blinking hard.

"She knew." Tenzin said before giving his own confession. "I didn't tell her I loved her that morning."

Su looks at him. "She knew Tenzin. I've known you love her since you were 16."

Tenzin feels the tears coming. "We were running late and she just gave me a quick kiss, while I was getting dressed. Then she was out the door and tossed an I love you over her shoulder. I didn't say it back. What kind of man doesn't tell his wife he loves her?" He wipes his eyes with the back of his sleeve.

Su leans against him, half hugging him. "She knows you love her. She loved you more than anything. But you, you worshiped the ground she walked on. Tenzin, I love Bataar but I know you loved her harder than he loves me or I him." They fall into silence after that, finishing the bottle between them. Tenzin has lost track of time or anything else when Kya finally finds them.

"You're drunk" She says standing above them.

He can't seem to focus on her. "Hiya" was what came out.

"Stay here. I'll be back" She tells them. He has absolutely no idea how much time it takes but Kya comes back with Bataar and Bumi in tow to drag him and Su back to the house. The next morning he can't remember half of their conversation but there is a shift in his and Su's relationship. Before they were always adversaries because Su meant stress and hurt for Lin and Tenzin didn't appreciate that but from then on the two would write to each other regularly and call often. Su would come to Republic City once a year to drink with him on the anniversary of Lin's death. Over the years this slowed down, families got in the way but they would always call each other on the anniversary of Lin's death. They shared the pain, it was the only way to cope.

* * *

"I don't know who I am." and the old woman was no help mostly just shaking her head at her. It takes her another week before she can sit up and walk without nearly passing out from pain. The old woman, who she has taken to calling Nan cooked for her and nursed her back to health or at least didn't poison her with whatever she made her drink. She is still very weak, she can manage to walk to the outhouse and back but is exhausted and aching after. She still can remember anything. It's like there is a space in her mind for things she knows she should know but there is nothing. It felt like an impenetrable fog over whatever had been before two weeks ago. She would just know things randomly, would know what kind of fish they ate for dinner but couldn't remember her name. She felt like it had been important to her. It was a thought she kept coming back to who was she, but there was never any new thoughts each time she circled back to it. There were just a few things that had been on her. A pendant with a flying pig and three swirls on it, a strange looking horn thing, she was pretty sure it had been deformed in whatever happened to her. Finally there was a rock bracelet and some kind of very damaged metal armor.

The rock bracelet fascinated her. she didn't know why, she turned it over in her hands for a few days. Before one day she just crushed it with her fingers. She was surprised but her surprise was delayed as if she had expected to have the ability to move the weird stone.

"Bender" Nan cackled at her pointing. "Earth mover you's"

She just stared. She tried it again folding the stone with her hands and it didn't budge.

"Breath" Nan scolded her. "Breath, breath, breath" she chanted.

She just looked at the old woman like the crazy woman she was, but she did take a breath and relax. She closed her eyes trying to let her subconscious take over like before. This time the stone turned to putty in her hands. She opened her eyes and the stone looked liquid, she moved her hands morphing it into different shapes. This was how she sent much of her days relearning earth bending. She knew it was earth bending not earth moving as Nan called it. How she knew it, she still had no idea.

Another week has passed and it's now five weeks since she woke up. She has gotten good a bending the stone bracelet she can now move it anywhere she wants with a wave of the hand. She also figured out that the bracelet is not earth at least not fully because she has tried regular rocks too and those were so easy for her she accidentally crushed them into dust when she tried to shape them. The bracelet is a meteorite it just popped into her head one day. Why she had a meteorite bracelet was beyond her still, annoyingly. She's able to help out cleaning and fish with Nan now, but she hasn't been able to stop throwing up. Every morning for the last four days she has puked. The strange part is that she felt mostly fine by the end of the day only to wake up the next morning to do it all over again.

This morning Nan handed her a rag to wipe her mouth and said. "Babe" Pointing at her stomach.

The gears in her head were still slow, she suspected it had to do with a concussion, a term she had only remembered a few nights ago. Nan hadn't known it but she was pretty sure that what she had. She would reach for information that should have been automatic but she had to think about it. "You mean I'm pregnant?" She asked, astonished, she sank back on her heels.

"Ya, ya" Nan nodded to her.

She just sits there dumbfounded. There was no way. she couldn't be pregnant right? Well She couldn't remember if there was any way that she could or could not be pregnant. Hopefully her memory returned sooner rather than later, but until then she was terrified.

* * *

The next day Kyra was nowhere to be found but Asha was. She didn't seem worried by her mother's disappearance. They all trained together teaching Asha the proper airbending forms. It wasn't hard for her, it seemed to pick it up really easy.

"You're good at this." Kai complimented her.

"Thanks Mom's a good teacher and she has been training me since I was little." Asha told him.

"Really even though you weren't abender?" He asked.

"Yeah she said it was good exercise and she knows some non bending fighting too."

"Where did she learn that?" Korra asked intrigued.

"It's complicated." Asha told them. "Before she came here, her life was a lot different." It was the first time Jinora noticed the girl was unsure about what she was saying. There was definitely a story there but Jinora also knew it was none of their business.

"How did you find out you were an airbender?"Jinora asked her.

"I don't know how to explain it." Asha starts slowly. "I just woke up one day about four years ago and it was like a part of me opened up fully. I never felt so connected to the world. Then I saw a spirit" She laughed. "I spent most of the day chasing it. I crossed a creek and was jumping between stones when suddenly I was 10 feet in the air and 15 feet clear of the creek and I ran home and told mom."

"You never came looking for other airbenders?" Kia asked.

"No Mom was really good at training me and I couldn't leave her." Asha says immediately.

"But weren't you confused or curious?" Opal asked her.

"Maybe curious but I knew that the spiritual shift I felt was why I was an airbender. Then more and more people started seeing spirits, they seemed to be stronger after that day. I don't know why but I knew what happened." Asha explains, her answer is thought out and sincere.

"You must have a deep spiritual connection." Jinora says studying her closer. Every word of she said Jinora believed but how did her tie come so soon after and was so powerful.

"Maybe. Mom makes me meditate a lot even before I could bend." Asha tells them

"She meditates?" Korra asked, stunned.

"Yeah, she even makes her students do it sometimes. Always has." Asha shrugs. Jinora narrowed her eyes thinking hard. Mediation while not soloy an air bender thing was definitely not widely practiced, this was one too many coincidences it was time to talk to the others.


	4. Chapter 4

\- 20 years ago

By the time she is strong enough to do almost everything around the hut, she's losing her strength and independence to pregnancy. She is still no closer to remembering who she is. Not one detail from her past has come to her in the month since. When she figures she is almost 6 months along she and Nan go to a nearby fishing village. They leave at dawn, walking all day and get there at noon. At the doctors they ask for her names and she panics across the street. There is a sign for Kai's noodles.

"K-i-ra" she fibbs making it up on the spot.

"Okay Kyra, I'll go get the doctor." the lady says kindly. It's a quiet town with a few shops and a ratty dock. There is an older woman sitting down on one of the benches in the waiting room. She's short and was dressed simply in green tunic and pants. Her hair falls in front of her eyes, then she realizes the older woman is blind staring straight ahead at the wall. It is the only place to sit so she sits down next to her, Nan having abandoned her after shooing her inside.

"Hey kid" The woman says. "How far along are you?"

She's taken aback. "How did you know?" This woman was blind after all she could have been some muscle head of a man for all the older woman could see, but she had stopped herself from adding the obvious insult about the poor woman's disability.

"I can 'see' better than you think. Or call it a mother's intuition." The older woman cracked a smile.

"Kyra?" The doctor called.

She hesitated to rise. "Shouldn't he see you first? You were here before me."

"Nah kid I saw what I came to see." The older woman said, giving her a sad smile. "Take care, ya and the little badgermole."

She was left bewildered at the older woman as she walked to the doctor. The doctor asked her all the basic questions. Kyra deflected many of them, giving him vague answers about family history and such. She had learned about her was that she was independent by nature and didn't like to admit weakness.

"So how far along do you think you are?" The doctor asked her.

"Uh about 6 months" She said unsure.

"Well lets see." The doctor examined her. She explained to the doctor about being hurt 6 months earlier before she had known about the pregnancy. The doctor told her she had been healing well. She was a water bender who had settled there years before no long after the war. The doctor was able to finish healing her knee which was still sore often, not helped by the extra weight. The doctor also warned her that her chakras were still blocked by the trauma and that might be holding back her recovery. The doctor mentioned meditation which's mention had brought with it a feeling of calm and comfort in her. one more thing she couldn't explain, she thought. The baby was strong and healthy though, the doctor said she was likely only a week or so along when she had been hurt and that had more or less saved the bundle of cells growing in her stomach. The doctor had put many of her concerns to rest. She walked back out and went to the receptionist to ask about a bill.

"Oh no dont worry. That blind lady you were talking to took care of the bill." The receptionist told her.

"Uh really?" She asked, surprised.

"Oh yes, she said it was the least she could do and to tell you to get better and congratulations." The receptionist told her. Kyra walked out of the doctors bewildered she had no idea why that woman had helped her. It was strange, something kept nagging her about it but she didn't know what or why. She walked down the market to find Nan, part of her thought about leaving Nan but what would she do. She had no where to stay, no way to make money and she didn't know anything about whatever her life had been before. She pushed away whatever instinct she had to strike out on her own and found Nan. For a 100 year old woman she was surprisingly strong, easily being able to walk back home that night. Granted it was slow and they didn't get back to well after dark. Part of her had started to become paranoid during the journey she felt like she should hurry Nan home. She felt like she was used to being on edge ready for attack and that she would be fine but Nan would not. It came from nowhere but she once again felt familiar.

* * *

\- 16 years ago

Tenzin's relationship with Pema started out as a friendship that blossomed into something more. It was nice having someone to talk to that didn't judge him the way everyone else was. Pema was the only person who didn't put any pressure on him, everyone else, even his mother did. It was like they expected something from or treated him like glass. Kya was arguing with him again and he was 90% sure she was going to leave again soon. She stayed here with him off and on since Lin's death four years ago. His mother still lived with him full time although he suspected that was going to change soon now that they found the new avatar. Pema would listen and often want to talk about nothing that had to do with politics, his family or the police. He could listen to her talk about her day and the simple things in it like how one of acolytes had messed up the flower pattern while planting the beds. No near death story, no decision that would impact the entire city and most importantly no legacy he needed to uphold. Legacy might weigh on him the most these days. He knew the world waited for the news that he had an airbending child but he didn't and his wife is dead. Pema had been telling him a story about how one of the acolytes never closed the upper cabinets.

"Lin used to do that." He didn't really mean to say it. It just kind of slipped out.

They sat in silence watching the water. "You don't talk about her to me you know." Pema says after a while. "Your wife."

"Yes well, lately it seems like there isn't much good to talk about with the rest of my family nevermind her." Tenzin said almost to himself. These were the things he could admit to Pema and only Pema. He wasn't happy Kya was right about that, how could he be. He had started to do better a few months after Lin's death the pain seemed to dull somewhat, still there but new sharp pain at everything that reminded him of her had stopped. However even he knew he still hadn't moved on or really got passed that point. He didn't drink or anything like that or he suspected his remaining family would have had an intervention. No he buried himself in his work and his studies of airbending. He had begun talking to Pema because she was working in the library and he was there often. She had asked one day about one of the air nomads ceremonies that the abbot had gone over with the younger acolytes. It had grown from there. He had liked that she had never asked about anything that wasn't temple or air nation related.

Eventually they did become friends and he did become more comfortable with her and opened up. It wasn't until after his mother had left him to go train the new avatar that Pema confessed that she was in love with him. He didn't love her back. He was fond of her and he didn't want to hurt her. So he told her he would like to have a relationship with her. He knew he needed to move on, he needed to have kids to provide hope for the air nation and Pema was there and ready. He had hoped that he would grow to love her after a while.

* * *

-14 years ago

Pema looked down at her daughter, Jinora. She was only a few months old by now, Pema was thankful that she seemed to be a quiet baby. The girl was already sleeping through most of the night. Tenzin seemed to be enthralled with Jinora, Pema was happy about that. It wasn't that she doubted he would be a bad father, it was just that he was still distant with her sometime and she didn't want that for their child as well. But the moment he held his little girl he had been completely entranced with her. Katara too adored the little girl, Pema suspected that she had completely given up on the chance of having grandkids after Tenzin's first wife had died. Tenzin first wife, that was what always gave her pause. She had never been at air temple island when Lin Biefong had been alive, she had arrived three years after her death. She knew however tha beyond being the eldest child of the hero Toph Beifong that Lin had died a hero, in the line of duty. She also knew by now that she would always be in her shadow, put there by Bumi and Kya for sure, Katara, and even Tenzin. He never compared the two women because that would involve bringing up Lin. That had always been a no go zone he would shut down completely and make up some excuse to leave. She couldn't really blame him, he had loved her and the two had known each other their whole lives and she didn't. But part of her was always insecure about what their relationship really was. For her, he was her soulmate, but she knew that while he had grown to love her and deeply loved his daughter. Lin had a hold on his heart still six years after her death. Maybe Jinora would help Tenzin move on.

She knew however it wouldn't be this week. This week was the anniversary of Lin's death and her sister Su was coming to visit Tenzin. The two tried to get together every year to remember her, but Su had a family of her own and it was often hard. In recent years they had been resorting to talking on the phone for hours with each other, Pema didn't see Tenzin come out of his office until the next morning. This year Su's youngest was no longer a toddler and it was easier to get away. She had only met Su once and Su was nice enough but Pema was well aware Su was probably only doing that for Tenzin's sake. Not that she blamed the woman she was the replacement to her sister in her eye's.

"hello dear, You remember Su?" Tenzin said entering the living room with Su Beifong on his heels.

"Yes, good to see you again Su." Pema said smiling at her.

"Hi and who might this little one be?" She asked smiling warmly at the baby.

"This is Jinora." Tenzin told her.

"She beautiful, Tenzin." Su said smiling at him.

"We'll be on the far side of the island if you need us." Tenzin told her as the pair left.

As she expected she was a lone for the rest of the night, when she woke up in the morning she was still alone. She stuck her head the guest room to see if at least Su had returned to find them both there sleeping an empty bottle of alcohol on the floor. Tenzin was sleeping on his side with his back pressed against the wall and Su on her stomach head almost hanging over the bed. Pema sighed, well there was nothing she could do, but to pretend it didn't happen and she didn't see it. By the end of the week Su would be gone and Tenzin would be back to his normal self but she would give them this week.


	5. Chapter 5

"Hey guys" Jinora said to them all. Asha had gone off to do her chores for the day. They were all heading to Shun's home for lunch. "What do you think about Kyra?"

Kai shrugged. "I don't know, haven't thought much about her." Jinora resisted rolling her eyes at her boyfriend; he was not all that observant especially when it didn't benefit him.

"I don't know she seems to know a lot for someone who grew up in the middle of nowhere." Korra said. "Something is not adding up."

"She looks like my mom." Opal said. "I'm pretty sure of it. Same features are almost the same age and she acts like my grandmother Toph did."

"Wait what?" Kai said, stopping to think about it. "I don't really see it."

"I kinda do." Korra said squinting. "She certainly looks kinda like the picture Su showed me of Toph when she was young. Same chin I think with all of them."

"She knows alot about airbending." Jinora said "It's weird."

"Yeah I don't why anyone would meditate without being forced." Kai agreed. "Ow!" he cried when Jinora slapped him in the arm.

"Maybe she and your mom had the same dad after all Toph was never married." Korra suggested.

"I don't think so." Opal shook her head. "I'm pretty sure the only thing my mom inherited from her dad was her skin color and that the biggest difference between her and Kyra."

"Maybe we just ask her." Kai suggested.

"What? We already did, and she said she always knew." Korra pointed out.

"Well you couldn't have always known those forms." Jinora argued. "Someone had to teach her."

"So why can't we just ask?" Kai said again.

"No, I say Korra asks her about metalbending or earth bending if it's southern style then it'll be the same as mom's." Opal told her.

"Yeah that is a great idea." Korra agreed.

"Girls make no sense." Kai muttered as they began to eat lunch.

* * *

\- 9 years ago

Jinora was five when she first discovered that her dad had been married before he had met mom. It was just before they were going to celebrate the new year. Her uncle Bumi, her aunt Kya and her Gran Gran had all arrived within the last few days to celebrate it with them and to meet her new little brother Meelo. She wasn't sure how she felt about her baby brother yet. She had been super excited when her baby sister was born but she still wasn't much fun. She mostly cried a lot and took up her moms time, Meelo she guessed would do the same.

She was up in the attic getting some decoration and just looking through some old things when she found the first picture. It was of her father, Aunt Kya and uncle Bumi and two other girls, one about her dad's age and one younger. Her dad looked about 10 in the picture with his arm over the other girls shoulders, Kya and Bumi teenagers. Bumi had the youngest girl on his shoulders, both smiling maniacally. Kya was leaning on her baby brother's head. She flipped it to the back and recognized her gran gran's writing. Kya - 13, Tenzin -10, Lin -10, Su - 6, and Bumi - 15, Su's 6th birthday. Jinora stared at the younger version of her dad, aunt and uncle, she wanted to know who Su and Lin were clearly they were all close.

She dug through more photos, until she found another with them all together. They were older this time, and another girl was in the picture, this one about Bumi's age, her arm around Kya's and Bumi's shoulders. Tenzin's arm was around Lin's waist and Su was standing in front of everyone. Her arms crossed a proud smirk on her face as if she was queen of the world. Tenzin - 15, Lin - 14, Kya - 18, Izumi - 21, Bumi - 20 and Su - 10, Ember Island. There was another picture underneath it of her father after getting his tattoos, Lin was hugging him this time both smiling at the camera. Tenzin's tattoos ceremony, Tenzin and Lin - 15. It couldn't have been taken that far apart from the ember island photo. Her dad looked happy maybe a little tired as he held Lin to his side, both of them frozen in time. There was another one of all of them labeled Izumi's wedding, Lin dressed as a metalbending cop and one of Bumi's united forces graduation. All of 6 people kept appearing again and again, Jinora wondered who the other three were and why she had never met any of the three women.

The final photo she found was behind the chest she had been digging though. It had fallen behind there some time ago by the age of it but it was newer than the other photos. It was of Lin and Tenzin again. Her dad had his arms around her and was hugging her from behind both smiling wide at the camera. She said yes, Lin and Tenzin - 30. Jinora took a closer look at the photo, clearly they were together. Jinora gasped as she heard a creaking on the stairs.

"What are you doing up here?" Katara asked her making her way slowly up to her.

"Uh I was looking for decorations." She said pushing the photos to the side.

Katara caught the movement though. "What are those?" She asked, reaching for them.

"I uh found them in the box." Jinora said sheepishly.

Katara's eyes were sad looking through the photos of her kids. "These were taken such a long time ago…" She marveled.

"Gran gran?" Jinora asked shyly.

"Yes dear."

"Who are the others in the photos?" Jinora tried not to fidget when she asked.

"Well, that is fire lord Izumi," Katara said pointing at the oldest of the three women. "And those two are Lin and Su Beifong."

"Lord Zuko's and Toph's kids?" Jinora asked.

"Yes" Katara nodded. "And mine and Aang's god children."

"How come I've never met them?" Jinora asked her looking again at the ember island photo over her grandmother's shoulder.

"Well, Izumi's busy being fire lord. She can't leave the fire nation much and Su lives up in the northern earth kingdom now." Katara explained to her.

"What about Lin? She's a cop here isn't she?" Jinora asked, pointing at the picture of her and her mother in uniform together.

Katara's face fell. "No, no she's not."

Jinora had never seen her gran gran look so sad. "What's wrong Gran Gran?"

Katara closed her eye's. "Your father should really be the one to tell you this." She mutters. "Lin is dead." she finally said.

"What happened?" Jinora asked quietly. She was taken aback by the news, the woman in the photos looked alive and full of life.

"Promise me to not say anything about this, you are really too young to know and it's not my story to tell." Katara told her, looking her in the eye sternly.

"I promise." Jinora told her nodding.

"Lin was a police officer, she was killed in the lie of duty about 6 years before you were born. It was very hard on everyone." Katara said, running her fingers over the people in the picture.

"I'm sorry I asked. It made you sad." Jinora hugged her gran gran.

"It's okay dear. You were going to find out one day. Just talk to me about it if you have a question. Don't bother your father or Bumi and Kya about it, Okay?"

"Why not? Dad says we should talk about our feelings" Jinora asked her grandmother.

Katara almost winced. "I shouldn't be the one to tell you this but…"

"But what?" Jinora asked, putting on her best cute innocent face.

"Your dad was married to Lin before your mother." Katara told her gently.

"Really?" Jinora asked, surprised.

"Yes he was hurt when she died. That's why I asked you to keep it to yourself." Katara explained to her. "If you want to talk or have questions come to me, please."

"Okay" she said shrugging.

"Good come on let's go back down." Katara told her.

Jinora wasn't really sure how to feel about it. After all Lin was dead and her dad was with her mom. She had never heard her dad mention Lin before and her parents were happy. She could understand why her grandmother had told her not to bring it up, it must have hurt a lot. Lin was dead only alive in the photos locked away in her attic and alive in the memories Gran Gran, Dad, Aunt Kya and Uncle Bumi share. She didn't want them to be sad like her Gran Gran was when she asked about Lin, so she would keep her promise and stay quiet.

* * *

\- 25 years ago

Marriage. It was like Tenzin had brought it up before. They had talked about marriage and kids before. Lin didn't want kids. She had Su, that had been more than enough experience raising kids to know that she did not want that. Not to mention her job, their jobs, the last time either of them had worked under 40 plus hour weeks they must have been 20. But Tenzin was persistent and she wasn't completely against marriage even if she thought it was trivial and pointless and she did not want to deal with the actual ceremony. She'd deal with it for him but it was the kids issue that was the reason they had held out this long. 15 years in a month. They would have been together 15 years, they marked their anniversary as the trip to ember island when they were 15. It was hard to tell when they had slipped into something more but they had their first kissed on that trip. Her uncle's Sokka had recently bugged her about getting married when she told him about kids.

He had said "That man adores you more than his parents love each other, which is impressive trust me. I'm pretty sure he'd marry you either way."

She had protested about kids and he'd regret it.

"Then he's an idiot, love like you two got don't come around often and Lin, kids aren't the worst thing in the world. They aren't all like you sister, for what it's worth you'd be a great mom." Sokka told her. He would know he had lost his first girlfriend to the moon literally and then Suki had died of cancer young, only 37 when she died.

She had thought a lot about that conversation lately. It wasn't that she couldn't see them with a kid, she had no doubt Tenzin would be a great dad. It was that there was so much she couldn't control about having a kid. That terrified her, because she knew what it was like to have a bad mom and a troublesome kid, her mother and sister fit that bill to a tee. She had the same job as her mom and that job had been a serious issue between all three Beifongs. Tonight, she lay in bed cuddling with Tenzin, her back was pressed against his chest and his arm wound tightly around her waist. The other part of this was there was nowhere she'd rather be than with him. And she would move heaven and earth to make him happy. So she could compromise on this for him, even if she still planned on complaining the entire time.

"Ten?" She asks

Tenzin just shifted against her rubbing her nose against her hair and somehow pulling her closer.

"Ten, let's get married" she says this time a little louder.

She feels him start to say something against the back of her head before her words get through the sleep. "What?" He groaned, lifting his head.

"Let's get married" She doesn't turn around. Part of her is nervous about it, some tiny part of her mind doubts he'd agree to marry her and she bites her lip.

Tenzin is fully awake now, sitting up. "Really?" His facing hovering over her own.

She rolls on to her back looking up at him. "Yeah, Ten it's been a decade and half and I still can't get rid of ya." She cracks a smile.

But he is serious, he reaches to cup her face gently. "Lin…"

"Yes airhead. I'm serious. I love you and well, there is not a lot I wouldn't do for you. So let's get married. BUT we aren't trying for a kid for a year or two, got it?" Lin said reaching up for him.

Tenzin was grinning now "Hold on" he jumped up.

"Tenzin" Lin whined as the cold air hit her as he threw off the blanket and she lost his body heat.

He came back with a small pouch. "Open it"

She did and inside was an engagement necklace the ribbon was dark green and it was carved out of obsidian. On it was a flying bore with three little swivels around it. "How long have you had this?" She asks him, running her finger across it.

"Few years," he shrugged. She just looks at him, incredulously. "What? I'm going to marry you Lin Beifong one way or another, it's you and only you."

"It's beautiful Tenzin," she tells him, pulling him down for a kiss.

He drops to the bed next to her almost laying on top of her. " I love you more than I can say"

"I love you too Ten" she says this time the kiss is longer and slow. Later that night, she nestled her head under his chin as they lay back down. Most of his weight is on her and there is nowhere she feels safer.


	6. Chapter 6

\- 20 years ago

When Toph had left republic city it hadn't been on the best terms with anyone really. Katara, Tenzin, especially Lin. The two had always fought but she would admit that time had been different. She had left to see the world again and to find herself. When she was young running around the world with Aang and everyone else that had been when she had been the most happy. Settling down in Republic city had never been the plan, but hey that's life. She had enjoyed the police work well enough at least it wasn't dull but she was a free spirit and being stuck in one place held there by family obligations was exactly what she had sworn never to do. She had enjoyed walking around the earth kingdom all alone independent staying small backwaters and just enjoying life like she hadn't in years.

That was where she was when she had learned of Lin's death. It had happened nearly a month ago when she found out. She overheard people talking in a pub about an uptick in violence in republic city.

"Yeah since the chief was killed. Criminals are running free." One man said sipping his drink.

At first Toph had assumed they were talking about her because she had left almost a year prior after Aang's death but she wasn't dead. "Yeah guess they're trying their luck since it's not a Beifong anymore." The other man said.

This time Toph didn't miss hearing them. "What do you mean No more Beifong?" She asked them both coming over to their table.

"Didn't you hear? Chief Beifong was killed in some explosion a month ago." The man said.

"Yeah it was all over the papers." The other said. Toph walked the few steps back to her own chair. The blood rushing to her ears, Lin was dead. There was no way she would be killed. No she couldn't have been killed before me, Toph thought. She asked the bartender about it next and he confirmed it.

"Yeah crazy right? I heard half the world showed up for the memorial." The bartender told her.

Toph just sat there dumbfounded. The entire world but her had been there, the one person that should have definitely been there. She wished she had known. Wished she had made up with Lin when she had the chance. It wasn't Lin's fault, she had valid points much to Toph's displeasure. "I'll have a shot of your strongest." She told the bartender.

* * *

Korra and Opal headed over to Kyra's and Asha's home after lunch. "Do you really think she could be a Beifong?" Korra asked Opal.

"I don't know but it's weird I can't shake the feeling." Opal told her.

"But Toph was an only child and she only had one child." Korra said.

"No she didn't," Opal shook her head. "Toph had another daughter who was killed 20 years ago now. She was actually Tenzin's first wife."

Korra stopped grabbing Opal's arm. "Wait what?" she asked, surprised and confused.

"You didn't know? Well I think only Jinora knows actually, Tenzin and Mom don't like to talk about it." Opal told her. "Toph had an older daughter named Lin. She was a chief of police like Toph but she was killed on the job when I was two."

"How did I never know this?" Korra asked.

"It's a sore spot," Opal told her. "Mom and her were on good terms when she died and I know it hurts Tenzin. They don't talk about it to any of us really, I only know because of the picture of her and mom when they were kids. I think Jinora found out through her mom or something. Seriously, don't bring it up when we get back."

Korra was still reeling with the information. "Okay I won't. It's just crazy. You're telling me Tenzin was married before Pema?"

"Yeah for about five years I think." Opal confirmed.

"Well I mean, that's crazy," Korra said, still digesting the information.

"Korra really don't ask him about it. He and I talked after I became an airbender and I know that it hurt to see me as an airbender. It was basically 'what if ' for him." Opal warned her.

"Yeah, yeah I get it. Just wow." Korra marveled.

"You need something?" Kyra said without turning around from the task of folding clothes.

"Yeah we uh were wondering if you had a plan yet?" Korra started. "You know for tomorrow."

Kyra turned around leaning against the table and crossed her arms at the pair. "Yeah fight like hell and keep em running."

"There must be more to it than that?" Opal protested.

"Not really kid. I don't know if you noticed but not a lot of crack soldiers around here." Kyra said, raising an eyebrow at her.

"But you said you had to fight smart." Korra protested. "Besides, don't you teach metalbending."

"Earthbending" Kyra corrected. "There's barely enough talent and focus around here for that never mind metal." She sighed and pushed off the table and walked passed them out of the courtyard and into the street. Opal and Korra trailed behind her.

"Look they can't handle more than that. But Asha and I we can. We fight smart for them. There are four ways into town and four ways out. If you are on top of the building you can more or less cover the better parts of two quadrants." Kyra explained.

"Okay so you two are going to attack from roofs?" Opal asked.

"No, that only really worked well once. No, I am told you came here on flying bison, correct?"

"Yes," Korra afrimed.

"Then that is how we attack. We will use the bison to attack from the sky. I'll have a look out and warn us when they are near and we'll take the bison away before coming back. That way they won't know you're here unless you were spotted on the way in." She looks at them questionably at the last part.

"Then we knock some heads." Korra nodded along.

Kyra eyed her carefully. "Yes then we'll knock some heads." she agreed.

"Hey you any good with metal?" Korra asked auspiciously.

"Yes why?" Kyra narrowed her eyes at the young avatar.

"Cause I was trying to learn before, the last few years have been rough but I want to get good and seeing as I won't be in Zaofu for a while. You're my best option." Korra told her. Kyra regarded her for a long moment before throwing her a stone bracelet.

"This is a meteorite." Korra said.

"Yeah and bend it." Kyra told her still unimpressed.

Korra sighed and bent it into all kinds of different shapes as they went back inside the courtyard. "See I can metal bend." Korra told her

"Barely kid. I wonder how good your earthbending is." Kyra rolled her eyes at Korra.

"Better than you think." Korra shot back the words getting under her skin.

"Why? Because you're the avatar? I don't think so. Bending requires work no matter what." Kyra told her.

"Fine. earth on earth I'll prove it to you." Korra challenged.

Kyra glanced up at the sky before nodding. "Follow me" She led the way outside of the village to a small clearing. "Here will do."

"Ready whenever you are." Korra said cracking her knuckles. Kyra just grinned and sent a rock at her head. Korra punched it into dust and sent one of her own. Kyra dodged easily, barely moving. Korra was all warmed up though and jumped into action, sending three stones at her. Kyra barely moved stepping out of the way with minimal effort. Kyra stomped the ground and a pillar of earth nearly knocked her off balance and another stone quickly followed, coming all too close for comfort to Korra's head. Korra was still advancing though she sent another volley of rocks. This time Kyra erected a wall to stop them, but the stone broke the wall down. But Korra realized a second too late that Kyra was no longer behind the wall instead Korra felt a tap on her left shoulder, yelped and spun around to see Kyra standing a foot behind her. She must have moved underground to do that.

"I think this is over." Kyra said walking away.

Opal was covering her mouth to hold in her laughter. "The look on your face…" She chuckled.

"Shut up" Korra groaned, shooting a light gust of air at her. Opal only laughed harder and Korra could see Kyra laughing as well. Well Jinora would be happy to know that yes Kyra did favor the southern style of earth bending.

* * *

\- 11 years ago

The first time Asha remembered really questioning her mother was when she was nine. At school everyone was talking about what their families were doing over the holidays, but she didn't have a family only Mom, which was fine. She loved Mom and Mom was the best, but it was weird because everyone else had many family members, aunts, uncles and grandparents that all lived in this village or the nearby ones. Before Mom had always just brushed off her questions about her dad, but today she had finally told Asha the truth.

"I don't know kiddo." Kyra sighed, patting the space next to her for to sit with her.

"Why not?" Asha asked her looking up at her mom.

"When I was pregnant with you. I got hurt really bad and I lost my memory." Kyra told her. Asha had known her mom had been in a bad accident she had scars all over her from it. "I never got it back. I don't remember anything before waking up in Nan's hut."

"You don't remember your parents or my dad?" Asha asked.

"Nope. I don't remember anything. Now I'm trusting you with this you can't go telling everyone okay?" Kyra told her gently, but with the firm undertone that meant she had to listen.

"Okay Mom." Asha told her.

"Sorry I don't have answers for you kid." Kyra told her daughter.

"It's okay mom I love you." Asha said wrapping her arms around her mother's mid section.

"Love you too Asha." Kyra said kissing the top of her head. Asha didn't really understand the full implication of what her mother had told her until after. She questioned her mom on it a few more times but the answer was always the same. There were no memories before meeting Nan. Asha knew she was an easy kid, she never was needy and she always did what she was told. She loved and appreciated her mom and just wanted her to be proud of her. Mom worked really hard at the shop and teaching earthbending. So if leaving her mom past be was what mom wanted then she would do that.

* * *

At dinner Jinora was sitting next to Opal and Asha on either side of her, the chief's granddaughter was talking to Opal, she was young only nine.

"That's a pretty necklace." Opal told her, commenting on the bear necklace the little girl wore around her neck.

"Thanks my grandfather made it for me." showing it to Opal who oo'd and aw'd approperally.

"It's soo pretty my grandmother gave me a necklace and I always wear it to remember her by." Opal told her.

"Can I see it?" the little girl asked.

"Sure thing." Opal agreed, bringing the necklace out from under her collar. It was a simple one of her family's crest, a flying bore.

"Yours pretty too." The girl told Opal.

"Thank you!" opal said.

"Huh mom has a necklace kinda like that." Asha said looking at it as well.

"Really?" Opal said surprised and Jinora too was now fully paying attention.

"Yeah but it has a little bit of a design around it." Asha shrugged as if it was nothing.

"What's the design?" Opal asked, trying to keep her voice normal.

"Some swirly things." Asha said waving them off dismissively.

"Opal, you know why it's a bear?" the little girl interrupted. Jinora and Opal were still stuck on the fly bore necklace but Opal tore her attention back to the girl to answer her. Jinora meanwhile still stewed over the latest news. She hadn't had a chance to ask Opal and Korra who it went with Kyra yet but clearly they would have more to talk about tonight.

* * *

\- 17 years ago

The last six years had been extremely rough for Avatar Aang's family and close friends. First Sokka had died of a heart attack no one had seen coming and a year later Aang had followed at 165 years old no one could say he didn't have a long life. Then Lin had been killed a year later in the line of duty, going out like a hero. Now it was Toph's death three years after her daughter. Tenzin hadn't heard from Toph since she left the Republic City not long after his father's death. Su had told him that she had visited and they had sort of made up two years ago. Toph's death was a surprise according to Su, Toph who had been traveling the earth kingdom enjoying life. News of her death reached Su a few days after it happened in a small fishing town in a bordering earthkindom province to the United Republic. Su had called him and asked for him to come with her. He had agreed no one should have to do that alone. The locals had told both he and Su that she had fought a local gang when they had tried to attack a shopkeeper and grandmother and her granddaughter. The shopkeeper had been able to get the child out of the way but the grandmother and Toph had been killed by the gang who were now in the wind. That is how for the four times in six years his family and extended family gathered on air temple island to bury one of their own and they all had to go into the city for yet another memorial for a fallen hero.

This time he brought the whiskey to Su on their little mooring spot on the island. "I can't believe they're both dead." Su told him as soon as he sat down beside her. "They both always seemed invincible." She took the first swig from the bottle.

He looked over at her, her eyes were red and puffy from crying. "Yeah, I never got to see her again." Tenzin agreed. "I wish I did. I wanted to let go some of that anger I held at her."

"She was a hell of a person either way you mean it." Su commiserate with him. "Half the time I hated her, but it was also hard not to like her."

"I'm glad you too made up at least." Tenzin told her.

"Yeah me too I just wish I did it sooner with both of them. Maybe they both would be alive today." Su said, passing the bottle back to Tenzin.

Tenzin gulped down the burning liquid. "You can't blame yourself, Su."

"I can try." Su muttered.

"No, I do that enough for both of us." Tenzin told her.

"You? You have nothing to blame yourself over. You were a great husband to Lin and you never fought with Toph." Su told him firmly.

"I hated Toph after Lin's death. I didn't even think about not hating her until you told me you guys made up and what happened. I never got to forgive her in person." Tenizn sighed.

"Yeah well you can forgive the dead that all we can do now." Su said, taking another sip.

"I just hope the dead can forgive me." Tenzin muttered and Su raised the bottle to the heavens in a silent toast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't forget Toph is blind it's not like she would read about Lin's death in the paper and radio would be in its infancy then.


	7. Chapter 7

"How'd it go with Kyra today?" Jinora asked as soon as she, Kai, Opal and Korra were back in the little house. Chief Shun, had let them stay in a small house on the edge of the village that was empty.

"Korra got her ass kicked." Opal laughed avoiding the playful swat from the avatar. Kai bite back a chuckle of his own and Jinora smiled.

"I underestimated her! That's it! if we did best two out of three I would have won." Korra defended herself.

"And?" Kai asked.

"And she knows how to fight, like really good. She used mostly southern style too but I can see why Asha's so good at airbending she used some of what she taught her too." Korra reported.

"This has to be something, maybe she met Aang or Toph and just never knew who they were." Opal told Jinora. "I mean the airbending form and the necklace"

"Yeah so how does she have a Beifong necklace?" Jinora asked.

"It all makes no sense." Opal agreed.

"Wait what necklace?" Korra asked.

"At dinner Asha said her mom had a necklace like Opal's with the Beifong family crest on it." Jinora told Korra and Kai who hadn't heard that part of the conversation.

"So this really could be some long lost cousin or something." Korra said.

"I don't know," Opal said. "Toph didn't have any sibling that mom knew about and Lin's dead so I don't know how she could have gotten it."

"Who's Lin?" Kai asked he was the only one who didn't know about her.

"Toph's oldest daughter, she was killed before we were all born." Jinora told him quickly. "Maybe when Toph was traveling she met Kyra, Opal." Jinora told her. "That would explain it or maybe Aang."

"She said she didn't know any airbenders though and Aang is definitely an airbender and if she met Toph that wouldn't explain the airbending forms." Opal argued.

"Well then who outside of them would fit both?" Kai asked the girls. "Zaheer the only other person who was like into that kind of stuff." he added off handedly.

"She can't be red lotus," Opal said. "won't she have tried to kill us already?" she asked.

"She might tomorrow..." Kai pointed out.

"No Zaheer's been in prison for the last 15 years and Kyra seems well liked at least by chief Shun." Jinora pointed out.

"What about your mom?" Korra asked Opal. "I mean she's a Beifong, traveled the world and grew up around Tenzin. She could have taught her."

"Maybe…" Jinora said. "That would make sense."

"I don't think so," Opal said. "I'm pretty sure our parents relationship solely involves getting drunk together." Jinora wasn't really sure what they did but usually her father would leave when Su visited and neither would be seen until the next day. Her mom wasn't the biggest fan of whatever it was. Jinora still couldn't really picture her dad getting drunk.

"Wait Master Tenzin drinks?" Kai broke in astonished.

"Yeah" Opal confirms.

"Tenzin?" Korra asked again, equally as surprised as Kai. "The super tall bald dude with the tattoos? The one who I've seen laugh like seven times."

"Yeah He only does it once or twice a year." Opal told them.

"What? I distinctly remember him lecturing us on the 'evils of alcohol'" Kai said sarcastically.

"Because Lin, Toph's daughter, was his first wife. She died and He drinks with my mom on Lin's birthday and the anniversary of her death sometime with Kya and Bumi too." Opal said.

"He was married before?" Kai said in disbelief.

"Yeah for a few years." Jinora confirmed. She still knew next to nothing about their relationship her dad had only mentioned it once, only saying that he was very sad when she had died and he was glad to have her and her sibling to cheer him up. Most of what she knew came via Opal, but she only knew marginally more.

"He comes to Zaufo once and awhile to basically get drunk with my mom and his siblings, that's how they remember Lin." Opal confirmed.

"I didn't know Kya and Bumi went," Jinora said. "I know Su doesn't come to Republic city anymore. I only remember her coming a few times when I was little."

"Yeah I don't think your mom appreciated them all getting drunk." Opal said. "My dad doesn't really either but he gets it and we got enough space where they can stay by themselves."

"That's crazy," Kai muttered. Jinora knew something was still bothering her about Kyra but she couldn't quite figure out what, too many things were just too convenient with that woman. She felt like there was only missing one piece, but she didn't know what it was.

* * *

\- 17 years ago

Kyra had learned two things in the last 3 years: parenting was a marathon and a rollercoaster. Asha was amazing. She was learning and growing so much everyday. It was surprising to her that she woke up to a toddler every morning and not a little baby she couldn't believe how time had flown. It was good though it gave her something else to focus on because her memory still hadn't returned. But Asha was a way forward without worrying about the past because she didn't have time anymore to do that. She had spent a lot of time when she was pregnant thinking about who the kid's dad might be, for some reason it bothered her a lot the idea of her kid growing up without a father. It was probably the thing that bothered her the most about losing her memory. What it meant for her child's future, she would never know a family or a home or normalcy. Instead Asha got a mother who couldn't remember her own name and an old crazy lady who lived in a hut with them in the middle of had come into town today to get supplies for the coming winter.

"Spirits kid!" A blind woman yelled at her coming up to her. "What are you doing?"

"Excuse me," Kyra replied unsure whether to be offended or confused.

"Yeah kid what the hell are you doing?" The blind woman kept at her.

"Why would it be your business?" Kyra replied narrowing her eyes deciding on being offended.

"Shit you still don't remember do you?" The woman said, staring at her. "I would have thought… I was told!" she started.

"Whoa wait who are you?" Kyra now equally as confused and concerned at the woman's sanity.

"You really don't remember who I am?" The blind woman blink at her.

"Should I?" Kyra huffed.

"I hope so but knowing you. You would forget to spite me, ha, probably deserve that." The blind woman cracked a smile at her own joke but Kyra had no idea what it meant.

"Wait, you're the woman from 3 years ago, the one at the doctors." Recognition finally dawning on her.

"Yeah that's me. Anyway they assured me that you would remember soon, so I didn't worry. You never appreciated me getting into your business." The blind woman waved a hand dismissively.

"Hold on, how did you know me?" Kyra asked incredulously, but before the old woman got a chance to respond they both heard a shout.

"Kyra!"

"MAMMA!"

Both women turn towards the screams. Down the block they could see men jumping Nan and Asha. Kyra is running towards them in a split second the blind woman right beside her. The shopkeeper has Asha in his hands and is running towards them two men fast on his heels. The blind woman throws out a metal cable and slams the two against the wall.

"Get her out of here!" The blind woman shouts at Kyra. Kyra didn't need to be told twice she only felt a momentary twinge of guilt at leaving Nan but the old woman was hobbling towards them anyways. Kyra grabbed her daughter from the shopkeeper and ran towards the now gathering crowd. She reached them in time to hear a loud crash as the overhang of the shop the fight had been at collapsed. Nan, the blind woman and the men all trapped underneath its massive wooden beams. Kyra runs back towards them. She is able to free Nan pretty easily with a few men's help. The old woman was hurt but looked like she would lives. So Kyra keeped looking for the blind lady. She was in far worse shape, a heavy beam had pinned her chest and Kyra could see she was bleeding heavily. If they move the beam she would die in a matter of seconds as it was she had many minutes.

"You're dying" Kyra says plainly of all the things she wants to ask. She doesn't understand why she picked that to say or why there is such a deep pit in her stomach.

"It's okay kid. Take good care of my granddaughter, Love you both." The older blind woman says grinning at her despite the obvious pain.

"Wait! Don't go!" Kyra grabbed at the last chance to figure out who she was, but her what? mother or mother in law? was dead as was her past.

* * *

Jinora was awakened from her sleep when a hand started to shake her shoulder. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes and saw Kyra standing over her. "It's time kiddo." she said gently. Jinora just stared up at the woman's face. She moved on to shake Opal awake too before kicking Kai's bed starling him out of his sleep with a shout.

"Huh? What?" Korra said waking up at his shout as well.

"Time to go." Kyra said before turning and walking out the door. The four stumbled to get dressed and ready in the dark. The moon was low in the sky Jinora noticed as she finally found Kyra and a tired looking Asha waiting for them outside. Kyra was studying the bison intently.

"Where are we going?" Jinora asked, shivering as the wind blew through the village.

"The ridge to the north." Kyra nodded towards the ridge. They took Pepper up to the ridge.

"Why isn't anyone else coming with us?" Kai asked.

"There in the forest." Krya explained. "We are attacking from above, some will fight straight in the village and some will be coming from the forest."

"How long do we have to wait? Opal asked, hugging herself as the air was chilly up here.

"An hour. I wanted the bison not to be seen." Kyra shrugged.

"I'll start a small fire then." Korra said

"I'll help you get some wood." Kai offered shivering himself. The two jumped down off the bison and went to search the brush. Jinora moved to the saddle with Opal Asha and Kyra. Asha had curled up next to her mother and seemed to be nodding back off to sleep. Opal looked as cold as she felt. Autumn was here in earnest and up here in the mountains and the airbenders' suits were not warm.

"Here kid." Kyra said frowning slightly at her and threw her, her black overcoat. Jinora caught it, thankful for the extra layer. She could also now see that Kyra was wearing more armor now around her torso. The dirty silver and dark gray metal looked like it had seen better days and had been repaired and pieced back together. Jinora was happy when Korra and Kai returned and they got a fire started, it warmed them all up. Jinora watched the older woman, she simply stared at the fire or out over the small valley where she lived. There was a look of resolve on her face when she looked over her home. One that Jinora knew would mean she would either win this day or die trying. She'd seen that look on her father's face before too and Su's. Something about Kyra made her keep going back to her dad and her aunts and uncle. Kyra had the same courage and determination that lay in all of them, but there was something else, something she couldn't quite name. It was that same Opal and her siblings shared and she probably shared with Meelo and Ikki. That thing you only get when you were raised the same way by the same people.

A flash of light from the valley caught everyone's eye. "Time to go" Kyra announced. They all got back on Pepper and flew back to the village. Jinora could see the jeeps parked around town. "We split up three on the north side and three on the south side." Kyra clipped out. "Me, Asha and Korra will go north, you guys take the south."

Jinora brought the down low allowing them all to jump off Pepper easily. It was the first time Jinora got a good look at the back of Kyra's armor and saw it was the same cable mechanism that Republic City cops used. Sure enough Kyra used the cables to break her fall, Jinora watched in awe as she saw them coil right back in like she had seen Chief Rui do many times before.

She didn't have time to think about it though they were on their side of town in seconds and Korra was already off of Pepper. Her and Opal followed, there weren't many soldiers here but enough. Two caught sight of them and shot metal at them. It was easy enough to dodge and air blast were sent back at them one dodge but the other was too slow and was knocked out against the side of the building. Jinora could see earthbender picking their spots to attack the earth empire soldiers with hit and run style attacks. They would attack then run leading them into an ambush or at least that had been the plan. The soldier seemed to wise up to it and this was where Jinora and her friends were going to turn the tide. They were far better at straight up fighting and soon had defeated their targets.

"Jinora, they have a radio." Opal called.

Jinora had a thought, there was one way to put all their worries and wonder to rest. She picked up the radio and called home. "Daw, it's Jinora can you put my Dad on?" Because even if Kyra wasn't Red Lotus. She did have the Beifong crest and she did know airbending and she did have Republic City metalbender gear and only one person in the history of ever fit all of those.


	8. Chapter 8

Tenzin wasn't sure what to expect when he got to the village. Jinora had been brief and vague on the radio. She had only said that he needed to come because they had found a new airbender and something else but she wasn't really sure what. He thought maybe a spirit thing, Jinora and Korra were still a little unsure about some spiritual matters or maybe some artifact. Jinora and Opal were the most responsible pair of young adults he knew and Korra had grown up a lot in the last few years and Kai well was Kai. They should have no problem when anything else they could possibly encounter on this mission. It was very straightforward to go to the village and help the resistance there defeat the earth empire soldier and install the resistance as the temporary police force there. When he landed there that afternoon, he was confused to see the village cleaning up from what looked to be a small battle. He saw the earth empire jeeps and equipment piled up to one side. They had clearly been successful, why did they need him? Kai was the first one to come running up to him.

"Master Tenzin, glad you made it." He said skidding to a stop in front of him.

"Kai, it looks like you've got this and you didn't need me." Tenzin said looking around.

"Yeah the mission was easy, um that's not really why Jinora called you." Kai hesitated, clearly unsure about telling Tenzin something.

"What is it then?" Tenzin asked.

"I'm um not really sure," the boy scratch the back of his head nervously. "Jinora and Opal will tell you. Come on this way." He led Tenzin to a small house on the outskirts of town.

It was empty when they arrived. "I'll grab them. Wait here." Kai said before ducking out quickly. Tenzin sat down at the wood table in the corner. Whatever it was it must be something strange or rare, he thought.

"Dad" Jinora greeted him as she entered with Opal and Korra on her heels.

"How are you? I see that you were successful." Tenzin greeted them all with a smile.

"Oh yeah the mission was easy." Jinora nodded. "We didn't really have to do anything."

"Then why did you call?" Tenzin asked.

Opal and Jinora exchanged a look. Korra and Kai were standing off to the side silent. Clearly they had decided that whatever this was about would be best coming from Opal or Jinora. "Um dad, I don't really know how to ask this," Jinora said unsure.

"What is it, honey?" Tenzin asked, confused now.

"Dad, if I said there is someone here that is very likely a Beifong, a metalbender and know some airbending form. Who would you think I was talking about?" Jinora almost winced as the words came out.

Tenzin sank into his chair, his eyes closed. "No one" he muttered. "There's no one that fits that description anymore." He tries very hard to keep his voice even and he mostly succeeds.

"Tenzin me and Jinora wouldn't have called you here. If we didn't think it was possible." Opal said gently.

"No" Tenzin growled at them, his hand coming down hard on the table. "She is dead."

Kai jumped in surprise as Korra twitched in the corner of the room. Jinora winced but Opal ever the Beifong stared straight at him unflinching. "Tenzin, this woman is 50 years old. Master earthbender and metalbender fights like Mom and grandma Toph. Looks like a paler slightly shorter version of my mom and was able to teach her airbending daughter, partial form of airbending. You tell me what to think?" Opal told him.

Tenzin eyes blazed though, he knew somewhere that Opal didn't deserve his anger. "I buried her 20 years ago. My Lin is dead." he ground out at her.

"Tenzin, she goes by Kyra, she claims she's never met an airbender but there's no way for that to be possible and know what she knows. She has old republic city police armor. You can't tell me that's a coincidence." Opal argued right back at him.

"It must be!" Tenzin snapped. "What else could it be?"

"Well then you should have no problem meeting her and telling me I am wrong." Opal challenged channeling far too much of her mother for Tenzin's liking.

"She has scars" Jinora finally spoke up. " I didn't think of it before now but didn't Lin have scars too?"

Tenzin rubbed his face in his hands, trying not to let the emotion overcome him. "Yes, she did." He said.

"She'd got two of them on her right cheek and one above her eyebrow." Jinora told him.

Tenzin shook his head looking up at the ceiling. "No it can't be" he mutters to himself.

"Tenzin?" Opal asked gently now.

"On her right cheek, one that stops just before it reaches her cheek bone and the other goes just past it?" Tenzin asked, closing his eyes. "They're almost vertical with only a slight curve to them. Thin and deep looking." He describes them easily, he can still picture her face perfectly. It was something he memorized when he was still a teenager and had never let slip his memory.

"That's her Tenzin" Korra spoke up for the first time. "You just describe Kyra." Tenzin didn't want to believe them. Lin was dead. He had buried her two decades ago, there was no way. There was no way.

"Would you meet her?" Opal asked quietly. Tenzin nodded mutely. It was about all he could manage right now. Too many things were swirling around in his head, all of them painful. Lin, he tried most days not to think about her; it was too painful. He really didn't want to hear about some ridiculous notion that she was still alive. He looks up to see a young woman enter first and he nearly chokes on air. She looks just like Lin, not a perfect match but he could see Lin in the shape of her face and her eyes. Then he sees a ghost.

* * *

Jinora isn't sure what she wants out of this. She has very little idea of who Lin was other than a conversation she had with her grandmother when she was five. Her dad has only ever brought Lin up once when she was eleven. Opal seemed fascinated with her late aunt but she too knew better than to ask her mom about her. Opal had only ever seen the pictures and story from when Lin and Su were children and Jinora had only seen one picture briefly of Lin as an adult. The one of her father and Lin, that her grandmother had pointedly moved when Jinora had gone back up there later that week. She didn't know if she really believed that Kyra was really long thought dead Lin Beifong but she knew that Kyra was strange enough to warrant another opinion. So she had called her father, but watching how her father was now taking the question about the idea of Lin being alive was making her doubt that. She could see the clear pain written all over his face about the idea of her being alive. She tried to think back going over every bit of information she knew about Lin and cross referring it against Kyra. She knew it had been an explosion that had killed Lin one of the edge of the Republic, Kyra had scars that could be from such an explosion. Lin had scars though too. The thought jumped into her mind. The old picture her gran gran had taken, it was grainy but she had seen just the start of one long thin and striking scar going down 30 year old Lin's right cheek. Kyra had the same scar.

"She has scars," Jinora spoke up, interrupting Opal and her father. " I didn't think of it before now but didn't Lin have scars too?"

"Yes" Her dad said and then went on to describe Kyra's scars almost exactly. She could practically see her dad's wall crumbing as the coincidences that had stood out to them were painfully clear to him. She went with Opal to find Kyra, Asha was with her as well.

"We have someone who wants to meet you." Opal told them. "Tenzin he's the leader of the air nation. We think you might know him." Opal seemed to be the least affected by any of this. The true Beifong toughness and determination shining through her now.

"I doubt I would know him." Kyra said evenly but Jinora saw Asha tense and glance at her mother. She was the one to watch Kyra wouldn't give them anything she didn't want them to know but Asha would tell them a lot more. Jinora studied the girl's face, she got a lot from her mother that was for sure. They shared the same eyes and shape of the face but the mouth and nose reminded her more of her father's. She could only see her father's reaction as they re-entered the house. Her dad's eyes widened, and he mumbled something under his breath. He stood shakily and walked towards Kyra slowly as if he was afraid she would disappear if he startled her.

"Lin" His voice was hoarse and cracked at her name.

Kyra shook her head at him and took a step back when he reached out to her. "No." she said firmly. Her eyes cutting away from Tenzin to locate her daughter. More likely than not, Tenzin's daughter, Jinora, realized her half sister.

"No Lin." Tenzin said again a little louder and firmer this time. "You're Lin. I know you are."

"No I'm not. I'm Kyra." Kyra said but there was now a waver in her own voice.

"I know you. I've known you all my life up until 20 years ago." Tenzin told her shaking his own head now at her words. "You are Lin Beifong. You are my wife."

* * *

Kyra had felt wary of the airbenders since they got here. She could care less about the boy and the avatar but the other two girls she was inexplicably drawn to. The master air bender was young but respectable and the other girl had a head on her shoulders. She hadn't doubted their abilities on the battlefield but she had doubted their abilities to work with what they had here. She had thus far been impressed they seemed willing to work with her and had gone along with her plan rather than insisting on doing it their way. She liked that, it had been her concern about working with them.

Asha enjoyed having them around too. They were close in age to her and all of them airbenders. She had done her best teaching Asha how to airbend, she knew a little something of other forms of fighting beside earthbending. But there was only so much she could tell her. Some of the techniques she used with her own metal cables was what had worked best but she didn't know much more than that. Kyra knew she generally fought a lot lighter on her feet than most earth benders and that most of her metalbending forms were not purely from traditional earthbending teaching but where they were from she like everything else couldn't remember.

The earth empire didn't send their heavy troops something that greatly evened the playing field. The mech tanks were hard for everyone to fight, only she with Asha's help were good at defeating them. They only sent 10 jeeps full of soldiers, that was about 40 men. She only had 5 earth benders and 3 nonbenders, not counting herself, her daughter and the airbenders. It was lighter than normal maybe Kuriva's defeat had spread them thin, Kyra thought. They were pretty good at defeating the non benders had gotten them where she wanted and the earth bender had been ready to help the avatar and airbender with the ones guarding the village. She had spent the rest of the morning helping to clean up the mess they had made and going through and moving earth empire captured equipment. Most of the soldiers had run once it had been clear they couldn't win, fine by her prisoner was a headache she didn't want to deal with anyways.

"We have someone who wants to meet you." Opal told them. "Tenzin he's the leader of the air nation. We think you might know him." Opal self assured, the girl seemed to go between being supremely confident in herself and shy, Kyra had noticed.

"I doubt I would know him." Kyra said evenly. She sensed Asha shift beside her and glanced up at her mother. Asha was always flighty about her past, Kyra had long since gave up caring. Still she followed them to the house that Shun had given them to use. When she entered after Asha and Opal she saw a tall bald man with the air tattoos that the airbending master had. He was about her age she guessed and stood jaw slack and staring at her like he had seen a ghost. The color had drained from his face and he looked like he was about to fall back into his chair. He mumbled something under his breath. He walked towards her slowly as if she was a wild animal.

"Lin" His voice was hoarse and cracked at the name.

Kyra shook her head at him and took a step back when he reached out to her. "No." she said firmly. Her eyes cutting away from Tenzin to locate her daughter. She wanted to know where she was if need be.

"No, Lin." He said again a little louder and firmer this time. "You're Lin. I know you are."

"No I'm not. I'm Kyra." She said but there is a waver she can't keep out of her voice. She doesn't know why but she can't explain the tugging in her gut. She can't decide if it's trying to tell her to run or something else she can't place.

"I know you. I've known you all my life up until 20 years ago." Tenzin told her shaking his own head now at her words. "You are Lin Beifong. You are my wife."

Kyra freezes. It can't be. She had wondered for a long time if someone from her old life especially after the old blind woman but no one had ever. Now she couldn't decide if it was relief or dread she felt at the fact that it had happened.

"Mom?" Asha asks, seeing her stunned expression and inching closer to her.

"Lin." Tenzin says again, taking his own step towards her. His voice is a plea and again it twists her gut.

"I don't remember you." She says this time trying very hard to keep her own voice calm and even.

Tenzin's expression is pained. "I do know you. I know everything about you, at least up until 20 years ago." he tells her his voice is low. "What- what happened?" he asked, trying to keep his own emotions in check.

Kyra can't decide what to say. "I don't know. You tell me how would I know you?" She finally settles on.

Tenzin face twist again. She didn't know why she had such a strong reaction to him. "You and I grew up together." Tenzin starts slowly. "We were together since we were 15 up until you died, when you were 34." Tenzin asked, stunned. "You really don't remember anything? Me, Su, your mom, my parents, Bumi, Kya,? Anything?"

Kyra just shook her head. She didn't know what to say, what could she say. "Mom, could he be right?" Asha asked she was now standing next to her having inched up to her. "He could have known you."

"What does she mean?" Tenzin asked, catching on to what Asha was saying. "Why don't you remember me?"

Kyra sighed glancing around the room. The others had made themselves as unnoticeable as possible sitting in the corner clearly trying not to stare at this. "I don't - I don't remember anything before waking up hurt in the earth kingdom." She admits her voice is shaky this time.

Tenzin's eyes widen. "Where is the earth kingdom? On the coast of the western edge of this province?"

Kyra just nods at him, unable to answer as the reality of he could actually know her really began to set in.

"That's where you supposedly died. Well on the United Republic side of the border but still." Tenzin told her. He studied her and must have seen she was still unsure. "What do you want me to tell you that will make you believe me?" He asked.

Kyra shrugged. "I don't know if anything will. I only know the past 20 years, nothing more."

"You have a birthmark behind your right ear just inside your hairline." Tenzin told her. "There is a scar on your knee from when we were six and Bumi threw a vase at you. The scars on your face are from when you were 22 and your little sister Su cut you with metal cables." Kyra reached up to touch her face unconsciously. All of what he said was true.

"I have an Idea" Korra spoke up finally. "The swamp. If there is one place where you can regain your memory, it's the swamp."


	9. Chapter 9

They flew over miles of dense jungles below them towards the giant tree in the center of the swamp. Tenzin remembered the story of the swamp from his parents and Uncle Sokka. They had spoken of this swamps power and the visions they had seen here while they were young. His mother and Sokka had seen people from their own past there, Uncle Sokka his first girlfriend Yue, and Katara her own mother. Korra too had ended up here in her own journey to heal herself after Zaheer's poison. She had been shown visions here and learned to overcome her fears and finally be free of Zaheer. He didn't know how the swamp had such a strong spiritual connection, but he hoped it would be enough to help Lin regain her memory.

Lin, seeing her again after 20 years was strange, painful, weird and amazing. She was still completely how he remembered her, strong, stubborn and unyielding as ever. She was still beautiful, her hair had gotten grayer and there were a few lines on her face but she was still beautiful to him. She seemed more relaxed too. Maybe up here in the mountains rather than the stressful and hectic life she had lived in Republic City had been good for her. It hurt that she couldn't remember him or the life they had shared together though. She had shown them the few things she still had after the explosion before they left. Her armor had been easy to explain.

"You were chief of Police in Republic City." Tenzin had told her. "Jinora recognized the armor design, that's what finally pushed them to contact me." Lin had nodded.

Asha had found that idea assuming. "Well that explains a lot." She had told her mom bumping her with her shoulder slightly. Lin had rolled her eyes at her daughter, clearly some joke passing between the two.

The next item was a mangled piece of white horn. "Oogi's whistle, I gave that to you years ago. In case you ever need him." Tenzin said.

"I never figured out what it was." Lin had told him. "It got pretty mangled in the explosion I imagine."

The final item made his heart seize. It was the pendant from the engagement necklace he had made from her. "I made it for you when we got engaged." Tenzin said quietly when Lin handed him the pendant. Lin's eyes had flicked up to meet his and he thought his heart was going to explode. He had made it over 25 years ago now, it was just the flying bore with the three spirals of the air nation symbol. "The flying bore is the symbol of your family, the Beifongs. Opal has a necklace with the bore too. She is your niece." Tenzin explained to her. Lin regarded Opal for a moment before offering her a nod.

"That's why you asked me about it at dinner. You knew only Beifongs had it." Asha said.

Asha, Lin's daughter Asha had been staying close to her, eyeing him warily. Their daughter he corrected himself, he was almost 98% sure she was their daughter. She was the right age and he could see some of himself in her. He marvels at how much of her mother was in her though. She was a Beifong there was no denying it, from the protective and wary nature she had taken when he had thrown her mother for a loop. To the slight scowl and raised eyebrow at the idea that a swamp would magically cure her mom's memory loss. He should have expected that though, Lin had raised her on her own. He felt guilty, ashamed and sad that he couldn't have been there to help her and to watch their daughter grow up himself. Fatherhood have given him the first real joy in his life after Lin's supposed death. He would have loved watching their daughter growing up and he still planned on enjoying whatever time he'd have with the 20 year old.

"What do I do?" Lin asked Korra as they walked towards the trunk of the giant tree.

"I just touched it." Korra shrugged at her. "But meditation might be the best especially since you already do that normally."

"You mediate now?" Tenzin asked her, surprised.

"Yeah, it was the only way to get the headaches to stop." Lin shrugged.

"You used to hate it, when Dad made us when we were kids. I don't think you ever did past the age of 20 when you humored me." Tenzin told her, smiling at the memory.

"Yeah, well, now I do it. At least once a week. Used to have to do it more." Lin told him. Tenzin's face fell, he felt bad about her getting so hurt. He felt guilty about him not being there to help her. There was nothing he could have done and no way he could have known but it didn't make it any easier, she was his wife after all. Lin sat down cross legged on the root of the tree and reached her hand forward to flatten her palm against the root, her eyes closed. She stayed like that for several seconds but it felt like an enturity to Tenzin but couldn't have been more than a minute. Tenzin watched Lin rise shakily, she turned and took a step towards him out stretching her hand to him. "Tenzin" her voice is raw and Tenzin knew she remembered.

He closes the gap between them wrapping his arms around her frame and burying his head in her neck. Relief overwhelming him as her arms went around him and her hands clutching at him. "Lin" He murmurs into her neck. "Lin, Lin, Lin" each one it's own little prayer of thanks. His wife is back. He can feel her tears on him and he knows he's crying too but he doesn't care he has his Lin back.

* * *

Kyra was still reeling over meeting Tenzin and finding out about her old life. Tenzin, her husband, she had been married before the explosion. He was the father of her daughter. She had always wondered about that, most other things she had let go of, but that she held onto that for Asha's sake. Asha had always wondered about her father, but Kyra knew as much as she had until now. Tenzin not what she had imagined but she could see him in their daughter. They shared the same eye shape and mouth. She also trusted him for some reason, but she wanted to trust him even if she couldn't remember anything about him. Maybe it was proof he knew her, he had been able to tell her about the scars and her birthmark. She'd find out she supposed, assuming this magic forest thing worked. That she didn't get, Asha knew about that spirit stuff. She liked playing with the spirits in the forest, Kyra could careless and would rather not mess with them. Still even she felt the shift in the air as they began to fly over the swamp below them. She saw a giant tree coming up at them. They landed there jumping off the air bison's back to stand on the root of the massive tree.

"Here we are." The avatar told her, shooting her a grin.

"What do I do?" She asked Korra as they walked closer to the trunk of the tree.

"I just touched it." Korra shrugged at her. "But meditation might be the best especially since you already do that normally."

"You mediate now?" Tenzin asked her, surprised. Asha and Tenzin had followed them but the other three stayed behind with the bisons.

"Yeah, it was the only way to get the headaches to stop." Kyra shrugged. When she first had woken up it had been hard to stay awake for more than a few hours, the head aches were that bad. Over time they had lessened but stress brought them back. It had taken her over a year to work up to the point to be able to spar again without almost passing out.

"You used to hate it, when Dad made us when we were kids. I don't think you ever did past the age of 20 when you humored me." Tenzin told her, smiling at the memory.

"Yeah, well, now I do it. At least once a week. Used to have to do it more." Kyra told him. She sat down crossed legged at the tree's base. She took a breath, reaching forwards placing her palm to the tree. She almost gasped at the electric current she felt travel through her body. It was like all of her senses opened up to the tree and her memory unlocked. She watched the years zip by a warp speed. Asha and her training just a few weeks ago, then Asha becoming an airbender, then Asha's tenth birthday, Nan's death, Asha's birth, waking up after the explosion. Then it was 'new' memories, ones she hadn't had access to in 20 years. The explosion itself, saving her men, Tenzin, their wedding, growing up with him, his family and her family, Su and her mom. Then it's over as quick as it started. She feels shaky and overwhelmed as she stands, but also feels the overwhelming need to get to him. She took a step towards him out stretching her hand to him.

"Tenzin" her voice is raw with the 34 years of emotion and memories she now remembered.

She can see his face light up at the realization that she did remember him before crumbling as he darted forward sweeping her up into his arms. "Lin," he says softly against her neck. She hugs him back like her life depended on it. She takes a shaky breath against him as he murmurs her name into her neck. She can feel the emotion starting to overcome her and the tears begin to fall onto his chest. He's crying too, his eyes wet against her neck. They stay like that for a while, until they both regain control of their emotions. She laughs as she pulls away emotionally exhausted and exhilarated at the same time. Tenzin stays close to her keeping his arm around her shoulders. He kisses her temple as she pulls away from him, his lips linger there.

Korra and Asha had both turned away giving them a minute looking out over the dense swampland below them. They stood when Tenzin and Lin neared. "So it worked?"

"Yeah it worked." Lin breathed. She pulls away from Tenzin enough to catch Asha who jumps forward to hug her at the news.

"I'm so happy for you mom." Her daughter told her.

"This is your father." Lin tells her softly, holding her at arm's length in front of her.

"I'm so happy to meet you." Tenzin said, smiling at her and placing a hand on her shoulder. "I just wish it had happened sooner."

Asha grinned at him. "yeah well I'm just glad to finally know."

* * *

Tenzin was over the moon. His Lin is back, he had missed her some much everyday. Now that she was here standing next to him, he felt like he was floating. He finally let go of her allowing her to pull back. He kissed her temple when she did. He wanted nothing more than to kiss her properly but he also knew this was a lot for her. He could practically feel the emotional exhustion coming off her as soon as she had remembered. If she wanted to kiss him, she'd do it he knew. Until then he didn't plan on letting go of her. That would have to wait though until they had a chance to talk about the last 20 years.

"What should we do now?" Korra asked as the four walked back towards the bisons.

"Well," Tenzin said, glancing up at Opal on Pepper and Lin. "Zaufo isn't far away and Su will flip when she finds out." He watches Lin carefully. The sisters hadn't been on the best of terms when Lin had 'died'. He knew she hadn't hated her sister but there was still bad blood and hurt feeling between the pair.

Lin looked away, even as Opal was excited. "She'll be happy to see you." Opal said, smiling at her aunt.

"She's better now," Tenzin told Lin, understanding the hesitation. "She has grown up alot since your death."

"She's told me alot about growing up with you." Opal was confused about why Lin was hesitant.

"I doubt that." Lin muttered darkly.

"Lin, she really has. She and I are close friends now. Beside you can probably get her to admit to anything when she sees you." Tenzin told her.

"Fine. only because I don't want to sleep out here." Lin gave in with a huff. They flew for most of the evening to Zaufo, arriving late that night.

"Master Tenzin, Lady Opal." One of the guards greeted them when they landed. "We weren't expecting you."

"Please tell Su, we're here and she needs to see us immediately." Tenzin ordered them.

"What's your sister like mom?" Asha asked.

Lin crossed her arms, Tenzin could see her guard going up. "I don't know. Ask Opal, I haven't talked to her in 30 years."

"What?" Opal asked, unaware of the sister's history. Korra, Asha, Jinora, and Kai also listened in clearly interested. The kids had been trying to listen in as closely as possible as without being noticed by either of the older adults. It was a good thing none of them were spies because they had largely failed at that. But because of that Lin and he hadn't talked at all because of them. He knew Lin wouldn't appreciate it and he didn't really want to lay out all of his feelings to her with the kids listening in. The last 20 years was a conversation they needed to have but not one with anyone else around to overhear. Hopefully Zaufo would provide them with that tomorrow.

The guard came back over to them. "Lady Biefong will see you at the main house." He said. "This way." He gestured to the rail car with his hand. They took the train to Su's mansion, Tenzin let his hand find Lin's and intertwined their fingers, like he had done virtually every chance he got. He could feel Lin tensing up as they were led into Su's office. Lin was looking around her back to the door.

"What's so important that you guys show up here in the mild of the night unannounced. Did someone start another war?" Su said walking into the room, with her husband on her heels both look like they had just gotten ready for bed.

"No it is good news." Lin said, stepping out from behind Tenzin. "Hello Su."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> any POVs you want to see besides Lin and Tenzin?


	10. Chapter 10

Lin almost chuckled at the look on Su's face, when she saw her sister's jaw quite literally drop open. She had been apprehensive about seeing her sister again. Mainly because they hadn't spoken since that day Su had left for Gaoling.

_\- 30 years ago_

_"I hope you're happy now." Lin had told Su leaning against the door frame as she watched Su packing to go to live with their grandparents. In a only Toph move, she had put Lin in charge of making sure Su got to the train station on time because she was too busy at work to be bother at her youngest daughter leaving the city._

_"Ugh, why do you care? I'm just happy to be out of here. I don't have to deal with you or mom anymore." Su sneered over her shoulder as she finished shoving her things into a bag._

_Lin rolled her eyes at the 16 year old. "One day Su, you'll grow up. And when that day comes I hope you'll finally understand." She was through looking out for her, protecting her, and trying to help her. "We're leaving in 10 minutes." those had been her last words to her sister._

_Lin had driven her to the train station and watched as Su got on the train. She had stayed there on the platform looking after the train until it was long since out of sight. She didn't feel the relief or the happiness she had thought she would have after finally having her bratty baby sister out of her city and out of her life. She had long since seen Su's problems with attention and rules as a direct response to their mother's absence. Su was literally the antithesis to Toph, Su broke all the rules, Toph job was to uphold the law. She was a rebel, Toph the enforcer everywhere but at home. That wasn't lost on either sister, Toph wasn't present and they both wanted and needed in their own way for her to be present. Su tried causing trouble to get their mother's attention. Lin had tried to get their mother's attention by being perfect, but that hadn't worked either. In the end, Lin wasn't sure either of them had been productive in ever getting through to their mother. Nothing but work ever seemed to capture mom's attention for more than ten minutes._

"L- Lin," Su stuttered out in disbelief, her eyes wide. "Lin?" she asked in bewilderment, reaching out to grab her husband's arm to steady herself. "Tenzin, is that Lin?" pointing at Lin.

This time Lin didn't hold back a smirk. "Yes it's me, Su" she said. Tenzin nodded next to her confirming her words.

"But- but how?" was all Su could get out still standing there shell shocked.

"Turns out, I'm not dead." Lin shrugged dismissively.

"Tenzin, please tell me I'm hallucinating or something?" Su said, stupefied.

"You aren't hallucinating, Su. Lin is really alive." Tenzin told her. Su finally let herself believe it then. She covered her mouth with her hand and ran at her older sister. Lin let her hug her, sobbing into her shoulder.

"I- I can't believe it's you." Su half sobbed into her shoulder. "I-" Another choked sob.

"It's me, Su" Lin said finally, reluctantly she wrapped her arms loosely around her little sister. "It's me."

"I'm sorry." Su cried. "I'm so _Sorry_."

Lin just held her and let her cry, rubbing one hand on her back and the other finally came up to cup the back of her head. Tenzin had moved around so she could catch his eye and she was grateful that he did so because it gave her a little more confidence in dealing with an emotional Su. When Su finally calmed down Lin stepped back letting her go.

"I'm sorry." Su told her for what must have been the 20th time tonight and wiped at her eyes.

"It's okay, Su" Lin said more to just pacify her and to move on. She was not in the mood to go down that road tonight. She needed one major identity crisis and relationship crisis at a time and she was about four over her limit right now. Dealing with their last fight was not on the docket for tonight.

"What happened? How? Explain this." Su said, gesturing wildly at Lin, still somewhat at a loss for words.

"I lost my memory." Lin said, shrugging.

Su did not find that answer amusing. "And? What, why, when? Like elaborate a little, Come on Lin."

"The airbenders and Avatar ran into me when they were finishing Earth empire forces in the earth kingdom. They realized something was up and called Tenzin. Who obviously recognized me. We went to a swamp and I got my memory back." Lin told her.

"That's it?" Su asked. "That's all you're going to say?" Su asked, clearly wanting more of an answer.

"Oh you have a niece." Lin added nodding towards Asha. She caught Tenzin seriously caught between wanting to smirk at her or shake his head at purposely pushing Su's buttons.

Su mouth dropped again. "Wait! That means you were pregnant during the explosion?"

"Yeah not that far along though, less than a month one doctor told me." Lin said. "Anyway, this is Asha."

Asha was surprised when Su hugged her tightly. "Oh I'm so happy to meet you."

"Uh me too?" Asha said unsure. While she was more friendly than Lin she had also inherited her mother's aversion of strangers and discomfort with hugging and the such by most people.

"I need to know everything." Su said, turning back to Lin and Tenzin. "And you aren't getting away with that explanation on the last _20 years._ "

"Maybe tomorrow dear," Su's husband finally broke in. "It's nearly midnight."

Lin looked around to see Opal, Jinora, and Kai all sitting on the couch very tired looking. Asha had also plopped back down after being let go of. "Yeah, I woke the kids up at 4 in the morning today. So they really should go to bed." she told them.

"I'll show them to the guest rooms if you want to catch up a little more." Su's husband offered.

Su nodded. "Thanks dear." As he led the kids out of the room. Lin sat down on the vacant couch next to Tenzin. "What really happened, Lin, I want all the details. We thought you were dead." Su said her voice serious now.

"I lost my memory." Lin started. "I was found by an old woman on the coast and she saved my life. I woke up not knowing who I was. I lived with that woman for four years until she was killed and then moved to the mountains with Asha. Where we lived until 3 three days ago when Jinora and Opal found us." Lin explained briefly but it was the most she had given Tenzin so far too.

"So you really didn't remember anything, not your name or anything?" Su said, trying to wrap her head around it. "And you never went looking?"

"I had a baby less than 8 months after I woke up. I didn't exactly have time and I was still hurt really badly. I don't think I woke up for several weeks." Lin told them. She hadn't told Tenzin the extent of her injuries yet not even Asha knew how close she had come to dying.

"When I saw her I thought I was going crazy." Tenzin admitted chuckling softly to himself and taking her hand again. He had been doing that a lot, like he needed to be reassured she was real.

"I know the feeling." Su sympathized. "I can't believe it all of this time you were what? A few hours away from us."

"Less than that you were two hours on Oogi from Republic City." Tenzin said, squeezing her hand. "And we never knew."

"Toph found me." Lin told them.

"WHAT?" both squawked, Tenzin nearly falling over twisting towards her so fast.

"I didn't know who she was but she found me twice. Once when I was pregnant and then once just before she died." Lin told them. She had finally put the pieces together when she remember at the swamp.

"But she never…" Tenzin trailed off.

"I never saw her after I don't know, a few months after your funeral." Su said.

"She saw me at 6 month pregnant and when she died. I never saw her any other time." Lin said. "She help save Asha actually."

"The kid she saved, that was Asha?" Tenzin asked the realization dawning on him.

"Yes, she was yelling at me about not knowing her and then Asha was yelling for me." Lin explained. "Mom she got trapped under the roof that caved in when we fought off the gang. She died there. I didn't know who she was." Lin said purposefully, taking a deep breath. It had been so long ago but the swamp had made everything seem so recent and the knowledge that the blind woman had been her mother was new to her. Tenzin sensed it and squeezed her hand again pulling their hands up into his lap.

"Damn" Su said, mulling it all over. "I was pissed at her because of everything." she gestured with her hand. "I guess she made up for it though, saving Asha."

"Yeah she did." Lin said. She wanted to keep Toph's last words to herself right now, she'd tell Su later when they both weren't so emotionally high strung.

Su was looking between the pair of them clearly trying to decide if she wanted to go there. Lin really hoped she didn't because she won't have an answer. "Are you guys sharing a room?" she asked awkwardly.

Lin tensed at the question as did Tenzin even though it was valid. "Uh," Tenzin said. "I would prefer not to let you out of my sight…" He left it open for her to get out of it.

Lin froze because she had no idea what she actually wanted right now. "Uhh, that's fine." She said equally as awkwardly, but part of her didn't want to be alone tonight.

* * *

"I'm going shower." Lin said when they reached their room. Tenzin nodded and lay down on the bed listening to the water run. His mind was racing from all Lin had told him and Su. She had met Toph after the explosion, that's how close they had both been to getting their normal life back. He was naturally grateful Toph had save Asha even if it had meant another 16 years of not knowing Lin was alive. He was also now sure that Lin had been really really close to dying out there. She had more or less let on that she still suffered from the effects of the explosion and she had said it was pretty bad early on after she finally woke up. He was quickly becoming completely infatuated with her again, if he had ever not been. He knew that no matter what _this_ , whatever this is, was going to get complicated fast. He had a new life after 20 years without her and so did she, but for right now he was listening to the little voice in his head telling him to ignore that reality and enjoy the fact that Lin was alive with him right now.

Lin had shut the shower off and came back out of the bathroom in her sweatpants and a tank top. Tenzin tried very hard, and failed, not to stare at her and ducked into the bathroom to wash up himself before she said anything. He walked back out into the room to find Lin lying on the bed looking up at the ceiling,with her hands folded on her stomach. She didn't look at him while he folded his shirt and cloak and he took the opportunity to study her. There were new burns on the inside of her arm that looked old enough to be from the explosion otherwise she was exactly how he remembered her. Lin seemed out of it, not fully present ever since they had left the swamp. He wondered if getting her memory back was affecting her.

"How does it feel?" Tenzin asked, watching her.

Lin sighed, she knew what he meant. "Like everything's raw, like it just happened." she said, still staring up at the ceiling. "If I think about breaking my arm when we were little it's like it happened today or Asha's birth or mom's death or our wedding." she explained. "I don't know, what's real right now."

She sounded so tired, Tenzin thought, like she really had just relived the past 50 years. He slipped into bed next to her. "I know." He told her quietly. "I keep thinking you're some figment of my imagination. You have no idea how many times I dreamed that you were still alive. That I'd walk up to you next to me again." His voice cracked a little at the end. Lin took his hand in hers and squeezed it in silent support. They lay like that for a while so long Tenzin wondered if she was still awake.

"I love you, you know." He told her. "I still love you." Tenzin finally rolled over to look at her to find her still awake.

He could see Lin freeze and bite her lip as she heard his words, before letting go of his hand. He thought she didn't love him anymore and he could feel his heart literally sink at that possibility. Better to know now, he guessed before he let himself fall deeper in love with her. Somewhere he knew he had never fallen out of love with her and never would. Her death had crushed him and this would too but he could get through it, he supposed as long as she was happy. Then a minute later, Lin rolled into him, reaching for him and curling into his chest. He immediately wrapped his arms around her and pressed a kiss into the top of her hair. He held her for a long while, she wasn't crying but he thought that had more to do with how tough and stubborn she was than anything else. He just held her tight and murmuring to her.

Eventually he felt her relax against his chest. "I love you too, Ten. Don't _ever_ doubt that." She said against him.


	11. Chapter 11

When Lin woke up in the morning Tenzin was hugging her from behind. She lifted her head up slightly to judge the time, not in the mood to move yet. It was still early, the sun barely sending any light into the room, not quite breakfast time. Year of living in a rural farming village and a small fishing village before that had conditioned her to wake up at the crack of dawn, despite how tired she still felt. She pressed back into Tenzin, feeling him tighten his grip automatically and closed her eyes for what seemed like minutes but the next time she woke it was because Tenzin was shaking her awake. The sun was fully up as she blinked the sleep out of her eyes, looking up at him.

"It's time for breakfast." He says looking down at her, Lin offers him a nod. He's already dressed and ready to go but waits for her to dress.

She walks back out of the bathroom finishing pinning her hair in place as she walks towards the door with Tenzin. He turns to her before opening the door. "Can we uh talk after?" Tenzin asks blocking her from walking out of the door.

"Yes" Lin tells him. He smiles at her before opening the door for her. She knows they need to talk about a million things and it is about time they did. When they arrive in the dining hall only Asha, Opal, Jinora and Su's husband who introduces himself to her as Bataar is there. Su comes in followed by what Lin correctly assumes is her sons. Su makes introductions as Tenzin questions Jinora and Opal about where Korra and Kai are.

"I woke them up." Jinora told her father. "If they fell back to sleep that's their fault."

Su did most of the talking during breakfast telling her about her family and everything that she's been up to in the last 30 years. Lin for her part doesn't talk much but doesn't stop her sister's talking. She figured the more Su talked the less she would have to.

"Kya and Bumi will faint when they see you." Su was saying now. "And Katara, Tenzin tell her first, we wouldn't want her to keel over and die." Snickers from the kids at Su's joke.

"Yes," Tenzin said. "I'll tell Kya to bring mom and come to Air Temple Island to see you. I'll radio her today."

"Good. Come on Lin. I'll give you the grand tour, while you finally stop avoiding my questions." Su said. Lin shot Tenzin a help me look, but he mouthed 'go' and 'later' at her. Lin let Su blabber as they walked around Zaufo, trying not to get annoyed. While she didn't hate Su, she still wasn't thrilled about seeing her. She was still pissed at her for all she had done to her. The swamp had brought that anger over her scars back to the forefront of her mind but also the many, many other incidents they had had over the years. The only reason she was tolerating her now was because she also had the memories of not having a family for the last 20 years and more importantly Asha always wanting one. So she'd try but Su was going to have to meet her more than half way on a few things.

"I'm sorry, Lin" Su finally said when they stopped to overlook the other domes. "About everything." Lin didn't respond yet but stiffened knowing what was coming. "I'm sorry we fought a lot, I'm sorry I hurt you. When you died," She took a shaky breath. "Lin I thought I'd never get the chance to tell you how sorry I am, about everything."

"I'm too tired to fight with you anymore." Lin sighed. She was at this point she just wanted to start anew with everyone, Su, Kya, Bumi and even Tenzin.

Su looked relieved. "I understand it, now what you tried to do for me all when we were kids. I know you weren't on me for no reason." She told her honestly.

"Yeah well I didn't know what I was doing either, still don't half the time." Lin shrugged. It was about time Su realized she was trying to teach her and protect her.

"Yeah well, neither do I. I don't think any parent really does." Su laughed.

Lin smirked alongside her little sister. "Su, don't push me. I just remembered why I didn't talk to you for a decade but let's just move on." She told her after a minute. After all she only had so much patience and that was not going to go to dealing with her baby sister bull shit.

"Fair enough." Su smiled. "How's Tenzin?"

Lin glared at her. "Didn't I just tell you not to push it"

Su didn't back down though. "Hey, he's been my best friend for the last 20 year. Hell he saved me from Kuvira. I say that I am looking out for him too."

"We haven't talked about it yet." Lin ground out finally. They needed to, it was half a miracle it was Su bothering her about and not Asha. Yelling at Su was easy but she didn't have the heart to yell at her daughter most of the time, especially about this.

"He loves you." Su told her gently. "He tells me every time we get drunk together. That he still loves you."

Lin closed her eyes. "I know." She said quietly. "He did tell me that."

She could feel her sister's eyes studying her. "He's also married." Su offers.

"I know that too. I picked up on Jinora calling him dad." Lin said she looked over at her sister who was still watching her closely. "What do you want me to say? It's been 20 years, I'm not surprised he moved on. I would want him to move on." Lin told her.

"He hasn't though. Whatever he may say to you, to his second wife, know this: he hasn't moved on." Su told her. "Anyone who knew you two back then will tell you that." Su warned her.

Lin had suspected that. The way he had said it last night, 'I still love you' had told her that and him holding her had only furthered that conclusion. She didn't really know what to do about it though. For one it had been a long, long time since they had been together. She had changed, she knew that from her recently regained memories. She imagined he had changed as well. He was remarried and had at least one kid who was only 16 which was a rough age for her family to be turned upside down. Although from what she saw Jinora seemed to be pretty grown up. She didn't want to be a homewrecker, she could be fine on her own. Tenzin being a part of Asha's life was important to her but outside of that she didn't want to hold him to any other expectations. She knew things were different, it is what it is, they can't change that.

* * *

"Hey dad." Jinora said when she saw him coming back from radioing the south polar to tell his sister and mother to come to air temple island.

"Care to walk with me?" Tenzin asked her as he approached.

"Sure" She nodded. Tenzin had no idea how to ask her about Lin or how to talk to her about his first wife in general. He had only talked to her once about Lin and that was a basic 'she died before you were born' conversation that he had ended quickly because he didn't know how to do this.

In the end she was the one that brought it up. "How are you taking Lin being back?" She asked. Her voice was calm and a little quiet. She was always so observant, most of the time Tenzin was proud of that. However right now, he wished she was a little less so, selfishly.

Tenzin sighed before answering. "I'm happy she's alive obviously. But it's complicated honey." he told her honestly.

"So Asha's my sister?" she asked next leaving the topic of Lin for now, which Tenzin was grateful for. He and Lin hadn't talked yet as Su had stolen her for the morning. Later he had told her, later was becoming a little too easy to keep telling himself if he was being honest. There was only one thing that could make the former chief of police run, and that was talking about family and emotions. They both were currently giving in to that tendency right now.

"Yes, she is." Tenzin said, smiling a little at that.

"She's super strong with bending Dad." Jinora told him. "She'll probably reach master before Ikki."

"Well, Beifongs and bending go hand in hand and Lin knows a far deal of airbending. If she remembered it all." Tenzin told her.

"Did you teach her?" Jinora asked.

"No, my dad used to teach us both when Toph dropped her off at the island. Then later on, when she didn't want to train with her mom. She'd come train with me and my dad. Sometimes your grandfather worked with her on earth bending and sometimes she did the airforms with us." Tenzin explained to his daughter. They stopped looking out over the city of Zaofu. Jinora seemed to be mull over the information he had just given her.

"What's going to happen, Dad? Like when we go back home, to Republic City." Jinora asked him not looking at him, part of him was grateful for that, part of him wanted her to meet his eye.

"I don't know honey." Tenzin sighed. "I really don't, I haven't even talked about it with Lin yet and it's not just us we both have to consider. It's you and your siblings and Asha and your mom." Tenzin told her.

"Do you love her?" Jinora asked, now watching him carefully.

Tenzin froze, what was he supposed to say to that. "It's been 20 years, Jinora." He said letting out a breath. It was the truth, just not the whole truth or the direct answer to her question. He was an airbender he liked to avoid conflict. Jinora looked at him wanting more of an answer.

"I was very much in love with her 20 years ago, when she 'died', but since then we both have completely different lives. Take out you, kids and your mom and that's still a lot of time for people to change. Yes, I love the woman I knew 20 years ago but I don't know if 'Kyra' and Lin are the same person." Tenzin told her honestly. He feared that to be true because it had been a long, long time. Yes he would always love his Lin but was the woman who couldn't remember her name for the last 20 years anywhere near the same woman?

"You know Gran Gran, talked to me about her when I was little." Jinora said, she had gone back to staring out at the city. "I was up in the attic getting decorations for New Year celebration and I found some old pictures of you as a kid with Su, Lin and the fire lord." She told him. "And Gran Gran told me that she was your first wife and to not bring it up because it would hurt your feelings."

Tenzin winced at her words internally. "Lin was the most important person in my life for a very long time. Like I told you before, her death hurt."

"I just want you to be happy." Jinora shrugged looking at him dead in the eye. "I don't really care about what that looks like."

"Thank you honey." Tenzin said but in his head he knew it wasn't that simple. For one Pema was certainly not going to be thrilled about this, for obvious reasons and Ikki and Meelo didn't even know about Lin yet. It was high time he told Ikki about his first wife but in his defence it had been a very hectic couple of years. Meelo was still a little young especially with his maturity level. All of them would be hurt in some kind of way no matter what, he figured and that pained him. He sighed there was no easy way out of this.

* * *

Lin finally escaped Su after lunch. She had been able to catch Tenzin's eye and give him a look to follow her during lunch. So she headed back to their room knowing he'd meet her there when everyone else had finished their meal. She took the long way to her room to waste time and running into Bataar, literally along the way.

"I'm sorry!" Bataar said startled as Lin grabbed his shoulder to steady them both as he almost sent them both tumbling to the ground.

"It's alright." Lin said in her usual gruff voice.

"You aren't going to eat lunch?" Bataar asked her, straightening his glasses.

"No, just came from there." She told him, shaking her head.

"Oh it's later than I thought." Bataar griped checking his watch. "I'll see you later, Chef doesn't like it when I'm late."

"Bataar," Lin called out to him before he rushed off again. "If I wanted to go somewhere where I wouldn't be bothered…"

"Oh, uh, yes. There is a small pavilion on the northern edge of the dome. No one really goes there unless it's for patrol." Bataar told her.

Lin nodded. "Thanks." She went back to her room and lay down on the bed. She probably should meditate before the nerves got to her but napping sounds like a better idea. Less worrying and thinking involved and Tenzin would wake her when he came in she knew. She was right. Tenzin did wake her when he entered sometime later. She heard the door open, rather than him still as light on his feet as ever. She sat up and motioned for him to wait by the door.

"Come on let's talk somewhere else." She told him as they left the room. They walked around the pod. Lin led them around the perimeter purposely as to avoid running into anyone. When they stopped at the small pavilion. It wasn't much it looked out of a wall of granite cliffs behind them. She could see why no one came out here, the shadows dropped the temperature here by a few degrees and there was nothing to see especially compared to all the other views of the valley or city.

"I don't know where to start." Lin admitted leaning against the rail of the pavilion.

She sees Tenzin sigh pacing slightly infront of her. The two of them were opposite in so many ways, this was one of them. Lin got still when she was nervous, she went into a de facto nonchalant bravado, whereas Tenzin needed to move as if it would somehow getting rid of the nervous energy.

"Neither do I. So much has happened and it's been so long." Tenzin said Lin could just hear the slight nervous tick in his deep voice.

"How are you then? Why don't we start there." Lin said, spreading her hands slightly.

Tenzin let out a short laugh at that. "I'm better than I've been in years, Lin. now that your back." He says and Lin can hear the truth in his words.

"Well, what have you been up to? I guarantee your life has been more interesting than mine." She says turning the conversation back on him, not ready to talk about herself. Besides he had more to tell than her.

"Well," He paused, stroking his beard. "I trained the avatar, fought in a few wars and had a family."

"Good." She tells him, throwing him off guard. "I would have wanted you to move on, Ten. If I had died." It was the truth too, she would have wanted him to be happy rather than sitting in his pain and misery and she still would. Him being happy that was what she cared about especially now.

Tenzin stares at her. "I, um." he clears his throat. "Yes, well. I got married and had four kids."

"Congrats." Lin offered, still smiling at him, arms crossed over her chest and leaning against the rail as if they were talking about the weather.

Tenzin had stopped pacing to stare at her like she had two heads, which only made her smirk more. "I thought, I don't know, you'd react differently." he says lamely.

Lin looks down letting out a breath. "I don't know Ten. What do you want me to say? It's been 20 years, you had a life and I had a life. I can't fault you for that."

"I don't know" He rubbed his face. "I have no idea what to do or say right now." he sighed, sounding about as tired as she felt thinking about this.

"Look it's really up to you." Lin tells him finally. "I imagine Asha will want to get to know you and on top of that she needs to actually learning proper airbending. That's all I'm going to hold you to." She tells him firmly. "Look, the rest is on you. You have a family, I get it. That for you to decide what happens." Asha's needs were nonnegotiable but the rest she could live with either way.

She could see the pain in his eye. "I-" He grasps for words. "I meant what I said last night, Lin. I love you." He paused. She got the feeling he didn't really know what else was between them beyond that fact. It was something she also felt. They loved each other but that wasn't enough now even Asha wasn't enough now.

"Tenzin, I'm not going to stand here and ask you to throw your marriage away. Just because I walked back into your life after forgetting you for 20 years." Lin says she can feel some of that nervous energy now turning into annoyance at him. Though it's not his fault, this is so very messy.

"Lin, I don't want to let you go." Tenzin says almost pleading with her.

Lin can feel her heart twist at his words but ignores it. She would not make this decision out of emotions. Asha and Tenzin deserved better than that. "Tenzin" She holds her hands up as if in surrender. "I can't make that choice for you. I can't make you stay with your wife but do not feel obligated to leave her just because you found out I'm alive."

"But would you? Would you be with me again, if I choose you." Tenzin asks seriously, stepping towards her.

It forces her to look up at him. "I-, yes." she says. "Yes, I love you that didn't change."

Tenzin takes another step towards Lin, invading her personal space. "Then I choose you."

"Tenzin" Lin exhales heavily, putting a hand on his chest to stop him. "I- you're emotional, you can't make that kind of decision right now." She tells him.

"No I love you Lin. And I don't love Pema, my second wife the way I love you." He says shaking his head.

She can see it in his eyes too, they don't wayver from her's once and she's the one that has to look away. But again she bites back the emotion. "Please think about this." She tells him. "I don't want you to regret this."

Tenzin narrows his eyes at her. "Since when have I ever regretted anything about you?" He says slightly exasperated with her. "I- you have no idea how many nights I wished you were next to me not her and how guilty I felt for feeling that. It took me a long time to even think about moving on, and I never really did. I'd make this choice everyday since you 'died' and everyday for the rest of my life."

Lin was taken aback by his words. She knew that he'd always loved her harder in many ways before. He was more emotionally connected than she had ever been, but it still took her breath away hearing him say that. "Ten" she sighed out. "Please don't put this on me."

"I won't, I'll tell her. I'll leave her." Tenzin says reaching out to caress her cheek and tracing the scars.

"Fine, but we aren't doing anything until you actually go through with it." She tells him poking him in the chest. "I don't date married men."

Tenzin laughs. "But I am married to you."

"'Till death do us part'. I think that already happened." Lin shots back dryly.

"Fine. we'll play by your rules." Tenzin laughs kissing her forehead and Lin smirks back at him but shakes her head at what they were getting themselves into.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> side note trying to write Lin in character here very hard not to make her overly emotional but hey turned out alright


	12. Chapter 12

Asha had spent most of her time in Zaufo being entertained by her new cousins and half sister. Mom, Aunt Su and Tenzin, it was still weird to think of him as dad, had naturally spent most of their time together. The older adults spend much of today catching up on the last 30 years. She hadn't minded after being interrorgated by Su during lunch. Opal, her twin brothers and Jinora had spent much of the morning sparring and working on airbending. Korra and Kai had eventually joined them as well. Wei and Wing had been fun to spar against. She was used to fighting earth bender at home but most weren't as good as the twins. She still held her own against the boys. Jinora and Opal had helped her with some more forms. It turned out that mom had learned a lot growing up with Tenzin, apparently she had half of the basics pretty much down and it hadn't been hard to learn the rest. It wasn't until dinner when she saw her parents again. Wei and Wing were telling Su and them what they had been up to all day and how she had beaten Kai.

"I'm surprised you remembered so much." Tenzin was saying to Lin.

Who raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Muscle memory airhead, didn't lose that." She said dryly.

"Still for her to be able to beat Kai…" Tenzin said.

Su held back a snicker seeing Lin narrow her eyes at him. "Hey, I've only been teaching bending for 15 years and I was always better bender than you. Beside she's my kid."

"Our kid and clearly not all your memory has returned." Tenzin shot back Asha thought she could see his lips twitch up though.

Su didn't hold back the snicker this time and it drew Mom's attention. "Hey! I can still kick both of your asses all day long. It doesn't matter how many times I get blown up." Lin says jabbing at both of them.

"Well, try not to get blown up again for my sanity please." Tenzin told her. It was fascinating for her to watch her parents interact. Mom seemed more at ease with Tenzin today, more at ease than with most people she had seen her Mom interact with despite not seeing each other for 20 years. But with Su there was more of her normal guard up, she didn't really know why that was, neither had Opal. Both knew that right now was probably not the time to ask after all the sisters hadn't seen each other in 30 years.

After dinner Tenzin stole her away from everyone else. "Do you mind if we talk?" He asked gently. Asha nodded, they walked into the back garden.

"I'll bet you got some questions for me, you can ask me whatever you like." Tenzin started.

Asha nodded again. She had always had a million things she would like to ask her dad if she ever met him. She had even made a secret list when she was a little kid, but now her mind was blank. "Um," she starts, trying to think fast. "What, what was it like before, you know, mom lost her memory?" She asks him.

Tenzin paused for a moment. "What do you mean? Like what as she like as a person or…" he trailed off.

"Yeah anything from your life before really." Asha shrugged.

"Well, I've known Lin as long as I can remember. So where do you want to start?" Tenzin smiled at her. They talked for a long while about her mom, her childhood and where she was from, it was something she had always wondered. Tenzin knew all of that though and was more than willing to tell her about growing up with her and their parents and everything else. Asha thought much of what Tenzin told her about the Lin he knew was almost entirely in line with her mom. Still it was good to hear about her past and her father's. It was better than much of the scenarios she had imagined growing up, it was also tragic. Childhood sweethearts that had been torn apart for 20 years only to find themselves living completely new lives.

"Are you happy, you know about me?" Asha asked awkwardly after a lull in the conversation.

Tenzin turned to face her completely and took a hold of her shoulders lightly but firmly. "Yes, Asha. I'm thrilled to find out about you, I'm sad I didn't get to be a part of your life growing up but," He paused taking a breath. "Your mother and I were trying for a baby before the explosion. You were wanted and you weren't an accident." He told her, looking her dead in the eye trying to reassure her.

Asha took a breath of her own feeling a weight she hadn't been aware was there lifting off of her. "I-, okay" she said unsure what to say but feeling better nonetheless.

Tenzin too, seemed to feel awkward. "I'm sorry all of this is such a mess." he offered, breaking the awkward silence.

Asha nodded along. "It's not your fault, you didn't know, mom didn't know. It just happened. Can't do anything but move through it now."

Tenzin smiled at her. "That's very wise of you. Look I don't know what the future holds but I want to get to know you and to teach you the rest of airbending." he told her.

"I'd like that." She smiles at him. She was beginning to like him. He was more approachable than she had first thought seeing him in the small house back home. He has seemed tall and intimidating then but now it seemed that the bread just hid his true nature well.

"If you have any questions, please ask me, or your mother, she knows almost everything about me." He told her before departing for the night.

"Wait" she called out, stopping him. She took a breath summoning her courage before plunging on. "Mom, I don't want you to hurt mom." She said. She could see his face light up in understanding. "I don't know where you guys stand but she's my mom and I'll stand by her, always." I'll protect my mother, alway, even from my own father is what she was getting at. If there was anyone who deserved a break in life it was her mother, so making sure no one hurt her now was the least she could do.

"The last thing I would dream of doing is hurting your mom ever." Tenzin told her seriously. "I- we need to work some things out, I need to prove something to her but I'd never hurt her."

Asha nodded and bid him goodnight. She liked him, she decided and she could see he had cared about her mother deeply which was good in her book. She suspected he still did, she had avoided asking about his family. Part of her was afraid of the answer there and she already knew a little from Jinora and Opal. Jinora and her had talked about their families as both had been equally in the dark about her parents relationship and Jinora had told her about her own family. She had felt the need to ask Tenzin about his wife and other three kids, mostly because she suspected he didn't have much of an answer. Hopefully it would all work itself out for the best.

* * *

Jinora watches Lin, Asha and Tenzin say goodbye to Su, each one of them being hugged by her. Jinora hadn't gotten a change to interact with Lin much in the two days they had been in Zaufo. Mostly at meals but she had talked with her when Lin had come over to her and Asha while they watched Korra try to beat Wing at power disc yesterday. Lin still seemed to be the same as in the village. Jinora liked her so far, she was strong but Jinora had been very impressed by how easily she had seemed to handle all of the changes in the last few days. Jinora was reeling over all of this; she couldn't imagine how Lin felt or even her dad. Yet Lin hadn't seemed phased by much of it, she took it all in stride and seemed to be able to handle easily both her sister and Dad's reactions about them learning she was alive. She edged closer to the pair as they threw the bags up onto Oogi's saddle.

"Well I haven't exactly told my younger children I was married before Pema." Tenzin was saying sheepishly.

"Tenzin!" Lin said, irritated with him.

"There young!" Tenzin defended himself. "I was going to one day. But ten is young." Jinora rolled her eyes at that from the otherside of Oogi, he had barely told her about Lin.

"Wait, they are how old? And you still want to- Tenzin!" Lin scolded at him

"What? It doesn't change things"

"Yes it does." Lin stresses. "We'll talk about it later," she sighs. "I'll deal with your siblings. You talk to your family." She ordered him.

"It's not like I ever expected to see you again." Tenzin argued lightly back. Jinora could hear the banter in their tones now.

"Yeah well, it is not going to be fun now." Lin said back sarcastically, throwing her bag at him as he threw it up onto Oogi's saddle. "Be happy Bumi and Kya are there when in doubt they'll cause a scene."

Jinora laughed with her father at that because it was very true. She could tell them must have had a great relationship before, to slip back into this with ease. She could also tell it was much different from her own parents' relationship. Tenzin and Lin relationship seemed to be on a higher level then just a simple husband wife that she had seen with her parents. Jinora couldn't articulate it but there was a closeness and an intimacy there that was absent in her parent's interaction even after 20 years apart. She knew that her Dad loved Lin still, she wasn't bothered by it at all. But she was beginning to get nervous about what that meant as they readied the Bison to head home. Home was where her brothers, sister and mother were all of whom didn't know about Lin and Asha. She had meant what she had told her father, she didn't really care if her dad went back to Lin. She had been thinking alot about the pictures of them when they were young. It had been clear to her that even at a young age the two loved each other. That said that would mean her Dad leaving her Mom and she didn't want her mom to get hurt and her siblings. But there was no way for them both to happen. She trusted her Dad and the cards would fall how they will but she'd support him either way.

* * *

Pema was happy, tired but happy. The kids had finally grown out of their constant bickering for the most part and didn't need her nearly as much at 14, 11 and 9. Only Rohan the youngest at only 3 still relied on her for everything. It also finally seemed like the world was calming down, no end of days crisisies, no impending wars or revolutions, just normal average everyday life kinda problems, her kind of problems. Pema could live with that, heck she was loving that, she could breath and actually had some time of her own for once. After four years of the sky nearly falling everyday she was more than happy to relax at her home with her family or at least most of her family. Jinora and Tenzin were off on some mission in the earth kingdom, still cleaning up after Kuvira's mess. Ikki and Meelo were enjoying being 'in charge' with their Uncle Bumi. Pema thought that perhaps it might be just as effective for them to be seriously in charge because Bumi had managed to get on every single one of the air acolytes' nerves in the past few days Tenzin had been gone, not that the two kids helped much. Throwing pies and causing general mayhem was up both their alley despite Ikki's claims that she had grown out of it. Oh well, Tenzin had told her, he'd only be a few days at most, he should be back any day now.

Despite his air nomad heritage, he was a homebody at heart, never the wanderer his siblings were. He loved being in his city and with his family. He seemed to be as happy as Pema could remember him being lately. His relationship with his sibling has improved greatly over the past few years and them and Su were now around more. The air nation had been brought back and he had trained the avatar. It wasn't just that though, he had never been closer with the kids and her as well. For so long, she had been well aware of his first wife, he would suddenly become moody and often go off on his own, but recently that had been happening less and less. She knew he had started to move on for Lin years ago but it didn't seem like until the last four years that he had actually fully succeeded in moving on. Pema was happy for him, he deserved to be happy after all it had been 20 years since her passing.

Still her husband could always throw her for a loop like when his mother and sister had arrived this morning unexpectedly, saying Tenzin had told them it was of the utmost importance that they make the two day journey to Republic City, not that she wasn't thrilled to see them. The kids were always happy to see their aunt and grandmother but a little notice would have been nice. They had been equally surprised to find Tenzin gone and neither Bumi nor herself having any idea what this was about. She really hoped this wasn't the start of some new world saving adventure she'd have enough of those to last a lifetime. Still she enjoyed sipping on her tea as Katara and Kya regaled Ikki, Meelo and Rohan with stories of their youth.

It wasn't until it was nearly dinner time that the sky bisons were spotted. Naturally they all ran outside to great them and to see what all the fuss had been about. Pema half expected someone to be hurt or something considering the last time Katara had been called here was for Korra's injuries. But Tenzin, Jinora, Opal, Kai and Korra all looked fine as they jumped off the bison. They had, however, returned with two extra women, a young woman about Korra's age and an older woman maybe the girl's mother by the way she watched the younger woman jump off of Oogi. Tenzin seemed to say something to the older woman before she too easily jumped off the sky bison.

The woman was tall and fit with graying but still dark hair pinned back out of her face. She carried herself like a warrior as she stepped confidently towards the group, everyone else had hung back with the bisons. Pema heard Katara gasp next to her and glance over to the old master to see an expression of shock on the old woman's face. The woman had a proud and stoic bearing to her, one that made you believe she could hold up the world on her shoulders. Pema recognized the same thing in Korra, although in the teenager it was more of a facade, in this woman you believe every bit of it. She stepped forwards to Katara and dropped to one knee in front of the old woman, taking her hands in her own and squeaking them briefly. Katara had covered her mouth with her hands and her entire body was shaking. Bumi and Kya were for once in their lives speechless staring at the woman, both had gone completely white. Bumi was clutching at his sister's shoulder as if he was afraid he would keel over if he didn't. Katara reached out to touch the woman's face, Pema could see the unshed tears in her eyes. Meelo and Ikki were so confused by their grandmother's, Aunt's and Uncle's reaction that they too were silent, watching as entranced as everyone else, the two women interact. The woman looked up at a Katara nodding her head slightly as if to answer an unasked question.

Katara let loose a half controlled sob as she said. "Is it really-?" running her fingers over the woman's angular face.

Pema watched the expression on the face soften slightly as the woman enclind her head. "Yes it is me, Aunty. I'm sorry I've been away for so long." Katara didn't seem to care as she reached out and hugged the woman tightly sobbing slightly into her shoulder before she had even finished speaking.

"I'm fucking dreaming…" Pema heard Kya mutter to herself. "Fucking dreaming."

The woman stood up keeping one arm around Katara' shoulders as she did so. "Sorry to disappoint, but you're not, Ky" her voice as strong and as calm as her demeanor, but there was amusement in her tone as well, as her lips curled upward in a signature smirk that Pema knew well.

Bumi was the first to move. "Lin!" he half exclaimed, half asked as he moved forward hugging her and Kya was a step behind him. The woman laughed as she managed to avoid crushing Katara and being knocked off her feet by the two siblings. And she did it with such ease because that smirk was as good as proof that you were a member of the Beifong clan, they all shared it, Su, Opal, and the woman in front of her, the notorious Lin Beifong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lot of Pema coming up I think.


	13. Chapter 13

Pema watched the reunion just staring. "Hello children, Pema. Why don't we go in and put dinner on the table while they, uh, catch up." Tenzin said uncomfortably coming towards them with Jinora on his heels.

Pema was stunned, but managed to nod in agreement because they definitely need to talk. "Yes, come on Ikki, Meelo." She says, finding her voice.

"But who is-" Ikki started to say as Jinora pushed both her younger brother and sister towards the house. Pema followed mutely as Tenzin trailed behind even her. She could see by the look on his face combined with Katara's and his siblings reactions that she had guessed correctly. Lin Beifong was alive and well after 20 years of supposedly being dead. She sat down at the small kitchen table trying and failing to put it all together, how did Tenzin and Jinora find Lin, without having any of the information. Ikki and Meelo stayed standing too wired and confused about what was happening to sit. Tenzin too stayed standing even as Jinora sat across from her with an unreadable expression but Pema swore she saw concern or sympathy in her eyes.

"What's going on Dad?" Ikki asked, rolling slightly on her feet and craning her neck to look out the window at the reunion.

"Someone from my past is back." Tenzin starts awkwardly. "She- We thought she was dead for the last twenty years but it turns out she wasn't."

"But who is she Dad?" Meelo asked, inpatient trying to see them like Ikki.

"Her name is Lin Biefong." Tenzin said, hesitantly glancing at Pema as he did so.

"Like Su's sister?" Ikki asked stopping to turn towards her father. Su had met the kids a hand full of time in the past few years but it wasn't until after harmonic convergence that she had really gotten to know the kids decently.

"Yes, she is Su's older sister." Tenzin taking a deep breath. "And my first wife." There it was out Pema thought, Tenzin hated talking about Lin to anyone that wasn't Su and even then it was usually alcohol induced. She agreed with him that Meelo was a little immature to explain all of it to him, but Ikki was right about the age Jinora had learned about her. Either way that was taken out of their hands as Lin Beifong was standing not 50 meters away from their house, somehow alive well and breathing.

Meelo stilled, "Wait, first wife?" he asked his dad but was looking between both herself and Tenzin.

"Yes, I was married to her before she died." Tenzin explained gently.

"But abbot Jun says people only marry once." Meelo said, wrinkling his nose.

Pema could feel Jinora's eye flit between her parents, unsure of her place in this conversation. "Well, no not everyone is like that." Tenzin started to explain. Pema winced internally, she didn't envy him, marriage and divorce were taboo topics even in modern Republic City and Abbot Jun wasn't what she would call progressive. "Some people never marry and some marriages fail and when that happens, people get divorced. In my case my wife, Lin, died young or we thought she did. So I eventually got remarried." Tenzin was clearly unsure how exactly to explain all of this to a nine year old, but what she was still stuck on was how did Lin come back from the dead.

"Tenzin, I- everyone thought she was dead. What happened?" She asked him finally breaking to the conversation.

"I found her, mom." Jinora said. "When we were on our mission. She was living at the village we were helping, she didn't have any memories before the explosion that supposedly killed her. Opal and I, we noticed a few things that didn't add up and asked Dad about it. Turned out it was Lin." She explained.

"And she remembers now?" Pema asks, looking between her husband and daughter.

"Yes, we went to the swamp and she remembered everything." That only vaguely made sense to Pema, she remembered some story about the swamp helping Korra but frankly she hadn't really believed it.

"Anyway," Tenzin continued glancing at her before plunging on. "You understand that I was married to Lin like I'm now married to mom, right? Well, uhh it turns out that we have a daughter together. Meaning you have a half sister."

Pema was shocked by the news, as were the kids who all started at Tenzin for a solid minute, gapping at him. Pema supposed it would make sense, they had been married for a long time, but she had never thought about the late chief of Police as motherly for everything she had heard about her and because she could barely think of Su as such. She did the quick math and supposed that the girl would be around twenty.

"Asha, she's really nice." Jinora offered breaking the silence.

"Can we meet her? Meelo asked, getting excited again.

"When they come in for dinner. Yes I'll introduce you to both Lin and Asha, but let them catch up with Gran Gran, Kya and Bumi first." Tenzin told him. Pema was still reeling over the new information about both Lin and Asha. She didn't know what had happened or was happening anymore and she decided to give up trying to unravel how Lin survived at least for the moment. She needed something else to focus on to keep her world from absolutely dissolving in the span of 15 minutes.

She cleared her throat, "Come on let's finish dinner." She told the kids.

* * *

Lin was laughing as she was almost tackled by Bumi and Kya. She let the relief at finally being home wash over her. Since her memories came back the aching to reconnect with that person she had been before had been growing. It was like she wanted to introduce the Kyra she had been with Lin who she was. She had been steadily getting more and more nervous as they got closer to Republic City and then Katara's reaction hadn't helped. She felt bad about that, almost worrying that Su's joke would come true as she watched the now elderly woman cover her mouth and go pale in speechless surprise at seeing her long dead niece and daughter in law back again. Bumi and Kya's reactions had been as energetic as Katara's was emotional.

Kya finally pulled her back and let Lin breathe. "What? What!" she said unable to form a question. Lin laughed as Bumi too released her and she stepped back, able to look at all three of them.

"Well, I survived." Lin said wryly, shrugging her shoulders.

"Really no shit!" Bumi laughed shaking his head at her.

"No, I thought I was hugging a ghost." Kya deadpanned, spreading her hands but a stupid grin covered both of their faces.

"We are very happy to see you alive and well." Katara chuckled, squeezing her arm. "But what happened?" Her voice going serious.

"I lost my memory is the short version." Lin shrugged. She glanced around to see Asha standing around with the other teens supposedly unpacking the bison. "First," She said motioning for Asha to come over. Thankfully Opal seemed to take this as permission to leave and managed to pull Kai and Korra away from the family reunion. "This is Asha, Tenzin's and mine daughter."

Kya's and Bumi's jaw dropped again. "You too had a kid?"

Katara smiled brightly though. "It is an honor to meet you dear." She said, taking Asha's hands. "You look so much like you mom did at your age."

"It's nice to meet all of you." Asha said, but Lin could hear some nerves in her tone. She figured it must be worse for her as she had never been outside of the small mountain villages since she was five. Lin had at least grown up here and all of these people were family not strangers.

"You were pregnant?" Bumi asked a little dumbfounded.

Lin rolled her eyes as she thought that was pretty obvious. "Asha, this is your Aunt Kya, Uncle Bumi and your grandmother Katara." she introduced them all.

"You may call me Gran Gran." Katara told her warmly.

"Okay, explain everything." Kya ordered. "How did this happen?" gesturing between her and Asha.

Lin smirked. "I thought that part was obvious..."

Bumi faked barfed. "I don't need to hear that, but seriously how did you survive that explosion?"

Lin took a breath. "I don't really know. I blacked out for most of it. When I woke up I was in the earth kingdom and an Old woman had saved me and I didn't remember anything." Lin shrugged. "Then I found out I was pregnant, I ran into Toph at one point, she died saving Asha. When Nan, the old woman, died I moved up into the mountains and we lived there until Jinora and the Avatar came to help with the Earth Empire. Then we went to a magical swamp and I got my memory back." Lin summed up nonchalantly.

"Uh wow" Bumi offered first. "That's crazy.

"Well, all that matters is that you're back home now." Katara said. "That swamp is a, special place, I'm glad it helped you." Lin could tell Katara might use a different adjective to describe her time there.

"Anything I missed with you guys?" Lin asked, looking to not talk about herself.

"I can airbend now!" Bumi told her excitedly. They caught up Bumi and Kya telling her about their travels and Katara questioned both her and Asha in what Lin was sure was only the beginning of a very long interrogation of the last 20 years of her life. Jinora came to get them after a little while to tell them that dinner is ready.

"I'm sure Tenzin told you about his family." Kya said quietly to her.

Lin nodded. "He did. We talked, it's fine." she told her but was aware that everyone else probably heard. On her end, she was fine with it but what was actually going to happen that she was about to find out. After all Pema and the kids were definitely going to be thrown for a loop with her being back and Tenzin was likely not going to help on that end.

* * *

Pema didn't know what she was expecting Lin and Asha to be like maybe just like they were but both didn't say much all of dinner. Lin had clearly been uncomfortable with the younger kids as soon as she had been introduced to them and Asha too seemed awkwards. Pema guessed that she should have expected them to both be overwhelmed by all of this. Lin in particular seemed put off by Meelo's and Ikki's energy, although she seemed fine when interacting with Jinora. Then again Jinora was far more laid back than her siblings. Asha was just looking around at everything. Kya and Bumi did almost all the talking during dinner saving the other adults from the awkwardness of the situation. They mostly told stories to the kids of their childhood that involved all of them, with Lin and Tenzin correcting them here and there and Katara interjecting ever so often. There were also plenty of questions to Lin about her life the past twenty years but she was putting on a masterclass in defecting and diverting the conversation to literally anything else.

Kya volunteers to help her with the dishes after dinner as the rest of them continued to talk. After dinner, how good Asha was at airbending was the main topic of conversation. Meelo and Ikki had wanted to find out but Tenzin and likely Katara had talked the kids into waiting for tomorrow to see. From there the conversation had devolved into which of the adults were the better fighter. Lin seemed more involved in this arguing with Bumi about who knew more hand to hand combat skills. Pema was slightly surprised to hear Tenzin plead his case but he was alway competitive with his sibling. Bumi, Kya and even Lin mostly ignored his argument though.

"Bumi that didn't happen." Lin said skeptically at one of his outlandish stories.

"I'm telling you it did." Bumi argued. "With only a toothpick the entire squad."

"Sure, just like that sea monster you wrestled and turned out to be a turtle duck, a net and some seaweed." Tenzin deadpanned.

"I saved you at the southern spirit portal didn't I. Single handedly, I might add." Bumi pouted crossing his arms.

"Yeah we decide that must have been Divine intervention." Kya told him with fake sympathy and Tenzin nodding along.

"I was right about air bending too! Without me you wouldn't have an air nation." Bumi tells them sticking his nose in the air.

"So I get to blame you for ruining my kid. You know she flys 10 feet in the air and talks to spirits now? Gee thanks." Lin says sarcastically crossing her arms at him

"Hey!" Asha cried glaring at her mom.

"Don't worry I still like you half the time." Lin told her but she was smirking as she did so.

"Mooom" Asha whined. Jinora was smiling watching the sparring match between the siblings with amusement.

"Don't worry Tenny is thrilled." Bumi told her.

"Tenny?" Asha asked, amused. Tenzin huffed at his brother.

"Which reminds me," Lin said "whatever your father tells you tomorrow about nonviolence and avoiding conflict ignore it."

"Hey!" Tenzin glared at her.

"I wouldn't have all of my parenting about standing your ground be thrown out. so you can be some flighty airhead like him." She sticks her thumb at him. They are sitting next to each other on the couch but not touching.

"They're good teachings if the world was more like the air nation…" Pema had to hide her smile of amusement as Kya, Bumi and Lin all mouthed his words along with him.

"Too bad. She's a Beifong. She needs to have the attitude of an earth bender." Lin says with an almost mock glare at him.

"My dear, I'm pretty sure that's genetic." Tenzin tells her dryly. She smacks his shoulder lightly and he catches her hand and holds it for a long moment before releasing it. They went on like that for a while until Lin started asking about her old house in the city.

"Su still owns it. I have a key. I can take you there tomorrow if you like." Tenzin told her.

"I'd like to see what's still there." Lin agreed.

"Most of your stuff is in the attic here." Kya told her. "I don't think Tenzin ever got rid of most of it."

"Yes, we can look now if you like." Tenzin offered.

"Sure" Lin agreed, rising and following Tenzin out of the room. The others went back to talking. Pema just listened to it all think about how Tenzin and Lin had seemed so comfortable with each other just now. She wasn't surprised about it per say but it did mean that Tenzin had a choice coming up.

"I'm going to put him to bed." Pema said when Rohan started to fuss for Katara. She gets up and takes him out of the room. She didn't really want to be in there any longer anyways. It was awkward for her now that they or at least Lin and Tenzin had settled in to chatting with Bumi and Kya. She was glad for the reprieve especially after Tenzin had left with Lin to go up to the attic to see if she wanted any of her old stuff for the night. Kya and Bumi were never especially close with her and Katara had been talking with Jinora and Asha. Rohan was easy enough to be put down as he had missed his nap and had been half asleep when he had woken back up in Katara's arms. She passed by the drop ladder to the attic and can hear Lin and Tenzin moving boxes and talking.

"Tenzin, be practical." Lin was saying as she heard the wood creek above her.

"I am." Tenzin responded. "Other people have done it." She is disappointed in herself that she only considers eavesdropping for a millisecond before doing so. Lin snorts and says something but she can't make out what it was.

"I love you." Tenzin said in response, there is almost irritation in his voice. "I'll say that to you everyday until you understand." The response should hurt her and it does but she expects it to. She doesn't think his eyes had left Lin the entire time they had been together after coming in from dinner. She knew he had loved her deeply and always would, this was just proof.

"I do understand." Lin snapped. "But it's not that easy or simple and you know it." That might had been the understatement of the century, Pema thought.

There's a pause. "You know the day you died I never told you I loved you." Tenzin says it is almost too quiet for Pema to hear but she can hear the pain in his tone. "We were running late. You gave me a kiss and told me you loved me while you ran out of the door. And I never kissed you back or told you how much I love you." Pema could feel her heart twinge in sympathy for that, if he had been blaming himself all of these years for that and letting that eat at him.

"Tenzin." she thinks she hears Lin say but can't make it out. "I knew, I know you love me." Lin's voice is soft but there's also conviction in her words. Whatever's said for the next minute is too quiet to hear when she hears them start to move around again she hurries back to the living room afraid they'd see her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me know what you think


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this takes place over a few days I just couldn't really figure out how to cohesively connect this chapter.

"Meelo, you are almost ten you can meditate without disturbing everyone." Tenzin was scolding the boy as they all came back in for lunch.

"I wasn't doing anything!" The boy protested. "Ow!" he yelped as Ikki swatted at him.

"You throw buggers at me!" Ikki screech hitting her younger brother again. "Ow! Grr" she cried as Meelo hit her back.

Jinora and Asha who had been coming towards Lin, Kya and Katara stopped to look back at the chaos. Pema watched Lin falter slightly walking in front of her holding the tea as she cared out some snacks a few paces behind. Lin could feel her head start to pound as she listened to the two kids and Tenzin yell. She stifled a groan as she almost fell forward gripping the back of the chair hard and nearly dropping the tea she had just retrieved.

"Lin!" Kya exclaimed concerned standing. Tenzin's attention immediately went to her as well as he and Asha came over to her.

"Im fine it'll pass." Lin waved them all off pulling out the chair herself and sitting down. Ignoring the buzzing in her head and black spots in her vision.

"You mean this has happened before?" Katara said, catching the meaning of her words.

"Yes it only happens if i'm overwhelmed or stressed now." Lin said dismissively trying to wave off their concern.

"Lin you probably had major brain damage." Katara fretted. "Don't move and let me see." As she came over to her bending water out of a flower vase.

"I didn't exactly have access to a healer out there besides meditation helps most of the time." She grumbled as Katara bent the water around her head.

"You meditate now?" Kya asked, surprised.

"Have to, only way not to get overwhelmed by these." Lin admitted.

"So you knew how to meditate but didn't remember us?" Bumi asked sitting down next to his sister and took a bite of his apple.

"Physical stuff came back to me if it was triggered but memory never did. Beside I was told to meditate but it came easy to me." Lin shrugged. "Would you stop hovering, I'm fine." She snapped lightly at Tenzin who was still standing over her, who rolled his eyes and huff slightly at her.

"You didn't say you still had them. You said you used to have them." He accused her, crossing his arms.

"No, I just didn't correct you." Lin said dryly. They had begun to borderline ignore each other as the awkwardness of their situation had begun to set in for Tenzin but that didn't mean they still couldn't bicker. He hadn't said anything to her all day spending most of the morning teaching the airbenders as she hung out with Kya and Katara. Pema had been in and out mostly doing chores, which was good because the less Lin had to interact with her the better. She felt bad for the young woman and knew it must be even more awkward for her.

* * *

Pema was afraid to lose Tenzin, she loved him more than she had thought possible. For her it had been love at first sight. She knew that he was her soul mate. For him it had been part of a healing process, he grew into loving her and caring about her deeply. She knew that she knew she had loved him first and harder. His first marriage had been all over the papers before she ever came to the island and Lin's death had been the biggest story for weeks on end. She understood he had been in pain because of that and loved him for it because he cared about everything so deeply. But with Lin back she needed to know where she stood. Still she had more or less been pushed to the side by him ever since Lin came back. She resented that, she wasn't just going to sit back and accept that kind of treatment. Though the last four years of wars and revolutions she had begun to look beyond herself and started to seeing she could be more than just a mother. She had enjoyed helping people with Prince Wu and had been much more involved in the community ever since. It had given her new confidence and self worth part of that was not being shoved to the side for just being a mother in the city and at home.

"Can we talk?" She asked when he came into their room that night.

Tenzin froze for a split second, before agreeing. "Yes I think we need to." there is resignation in his voice.

"I don't know what's happening here." she says unsure how to bridge the subject. She had never been one for being direct. Back when they had started dating it had taken her weeks to work up the courage to finally tell him she had a crush on him.

Tenzin sighed as he moved about the room in his normal routine. "A lot is happening. I don't quite know either, to be honest."

Well that wasn't helpful, Pema thought to herself. "Well, what is going on with Lin?" Pema asked, throwing caution to the wind. "I mean she was your wife." Pema doesn't look at him while she speaks instead focusing on turning a comb over in her hands.

"Yes," Tenzin muttered to himself more than to her. "What do you want me to say Pema, I- it's complicated because yes, I love her, but I don't want to hurt you and the kids and," He paused fishing for the right words. "I don't know what I should do."

"You already hurt them." Pema sighed. "Ikki wasn't thrilled not knowing about Lin and neither was Meelo but that's more defensible." Ikki in particular was not thrilled about either being lied to or with Lin and Asha being here. She had more or less sulked away from everyone as she thought they all lied to her, her entire life.

"I thought she was dead." Pema almost winces as the words come out harsher than she had anticipated and she thinks he meant.

"If you leave you're going to hurt them." Pema said plainly because it was a fact. Rohan was still to young to know the difference though and Jinora old enough to understand. "Do it now, when it's easier and don't hurt me over this by dragging this out."

"I don't want to hurt anyone!" Tenzin protested.

"What do you want, Tenzin? Because you've only mentioned obligation not anything you really want." Pema argued, beginning to get irritated at his avoidance. If he stayed and didn't want to stay because he loved her then it was only going to massively blow up in everyones face and that was the last thing Pema wanted. She wanted to treat this like a bandaid and just rip it off now.

"You and the kids aren't an obligation." Tenzin said firmly.

"You know what I mean." She snapped "if you love her more than me. Leave because I'm not living in her shadow."

* * *

"You know he has always loved you." Pema said, coming up beside the older woman.

Lin looked over at her, her gaze measured. Both women have yet to really size each other up. Admittedly that was because Pema had been avoiding that as she had just figured out where she was on any of this mess. "Maybe but that was a long time ago." She said her voice carefully controlled.

Pema shook her head sadly. "No he wants you. He was looking for the opposite of you in me, thinking he could move on but he never did. Now you're back and he can leave." Pema told her honestly or maybe she was just justifying it to herself, she had lost track.

Lin appraised her for another long moment before saying, "No, I wouldn't ask that," as she letting out a breath. Pema waited for her to go on because she really didn't know what to say or really if she truly meant that. "You and I, we don't need him. Asha and Jinora don't need him, maybe even Ikki doesn't. Those other two kids do need him though. I've raised a kid on my own. I can't imagine raising three." Lin said ruffly shaking her head.

"Asha turned out pretty great." Pema offered. She was the one who could imagine raising a kid completely on her own with what sounded like serious health issues at least early on. Not to mention having literally no support or memories.

Lin snorted and gave her another appraising look. "I got lucky that she took after Tenzin and Katara instead of literally anyone else in our families." she muttered. "And it bothered her growing up without a Dad, it bothered me, now that I can remember it. So no I wouldn't ask him to do that to his kids."

In that moment Pema was once again reminded of her first impression of Lin. A warrior who could carry the world on her shoulders that same look was about her now, because Pema could tell she was one hundred percent sincere. She was willing to take losing Tenzin for the kids sake, kids she barely knew. Pema admired that about her. Part of her wanted to take her offer and be done with this mess, Lin would leave and she'd never have to deal with this again. Part of her, the logical part of her, knew that it had felt like sometimes she had barely been a substitute for this woman for the last 15 years. How the hell would she even get back to there, now that they both knew Lin was alive and well somewhere in the world. And she was strong too, she could be, would be fine.

"Lin, I've never been you and I never will be." She glances over at the older woman who is studying her. "I've always come in second behind you. I knew that long before now."

"I'm sorry." She means it too, Pema can hear it in her voice. "He shouldn't put you through that."

"It wasn't like that most of the time. I'd never noticed most of the time, then all the sudden something would remind him of you and it would be clear as day. I make it sound worse than it was." Pema tells her not wanting her pity.

"Still for the boy's sake he shouldn't do this." Lin muttered looking back out to the city.

"Maybe, but we're all going to be miserable if this continues." Pema says. "If he doesn't want to stay then I don't want him to. I don't have a sham marriage." It's true. Pema doesn't want this but she can't keep sleeping in the same room as him and pretending everything is normal like before Lin. Lin and Tenzin were getting on each other's nerves over it too. Lin still admitiment over not making a move on him and he, still trying to convince her otherwise. She had talked with him the other night they were both on the same page their marriage needed to end before they started hating each other. Even if Lin didn't love him it was clear to Pema that she couldn't take his pinning even then. He would always love Lin more than her and she was just going to have to let him go for them both.

* * *

"I talked to Pema and we both agree it's over between us." Tenzin said finally. They had been standing looking out over the the temple for a while chit chatting.

"What about the kids, Ten?" Lin ran a hand through her hair. "I hated growing up without a dad and Asha didn't like any better either."

"It's different. I'll be around." Tenzin protested.

"You and I both know that's not the same and being a dad meant the world to you." Lin said.

"Lin," Tenzin started.

"No Tenzin think" Lin implored him, cutting him off. "You've barely thought about this! Ever since we met again you've just been dead set about this."

She could see his jaw clench. "I love you!" He retorted angrily. The silent stretched on for a long minute as Lin crossed her arms, not backing down. Then he tried a different tact, stepping close to her and speaking quietly, said. "I've loved you since we were kids. And every day I get to spend with you is a blessing because I somehow follow more in love with you." He grabs her, pulling her closer and she could feel his hands on her waist burning through her clothes.

She closed her eyes and put a hand on his chest in an attempt to stop him. "Tenzin…" she warns him. He was reciting their wedding vows to her and she could feel her resolve on this weakening.

"You complete me. You are the strongest, most selfless, most amazing person I've ever met. And it was an honor to finally call you my wife and that's still what you are to me." His forehead is now resting against hers as she peaks up at him through her eyelids. "I love you and now that I know you're still alive I'll follow you anywhere to be by your side."

Lin closed her eyes again. "You have to be sure about this" she warns him.

She can feel Tenzin's joy in her agreement. "Lin I was never as sure in my life. The first time and now."

"Okay" she nods against him. She feels him pull back and cup her face with his hands studying her before kissing her finally. She kisses him back. It starts hard and passionate but soon turns long and slow as they both lose themselves in rediscovering each other. They had a long road of head of them putting back together their marriage but they'd figure it out she was sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also there is probably only an epilogue coming up.


	15. Chapter 15

Lin looked around at the preparation going on all around her, acolytes and airbenders were helping transform the main dinning hall of air temple island into a party venue. They were celebrating both Katara and Zuko's 90th birthday. Neither had wanted to celebrate claiming they were far too old to indulge in that but their kids and mostly grandkids had convinced them that it was a great excuse to get everyone together for a happy reason instead of the normal end of world calamities. It had been a while since Lin had been to the island herself, in the few years since she regained her memory. Her and Tenzin had opted to leave Republic City and travel the world mostly training airbender at the other temples. He and her had talked about traveling the world together when they were young and they managed one or two trips before they had been caught up in work and life in the city. Now with her kid fully grown and most of Tenzin's kids teaching instead of learning they had much more flexibility to do that. They still came back to air temple island every month or two for a few weeks at a time so Tenzin could spend time with Rohan and Meelo. Jinora and Ikki often timed their visits with them. Lin would often leave them be and hang out with Rui and his wife. They had rekindled their friendship after her return from the dead.

In the beginning they had been here more often when the kids were younger. They had initially left with Asha and Jinora to get Jinora set up at the western air temple not too long after her return. It was also to cement the new family dynamic. It also gave Tenzin and her to work out their relationship again. In the end they fell back into fairly easily.

* * *

_Lin Tenzin Asha and Jinora had gone back to the villages to get a few things before heading to the western air temple. Seeing as they had left without telling anyone and neither her nor Asha had taken much of anything with them. It was about time they went back. Chief Shun had been happy to see them again, and even happier to learn that they had been able to help Lin get her memory back. He also understood why they were leaving for good. Lin packed up their stuff while Asha said goodbye to her friends with Jinora in tow._

" _Oh mom sifu Taho was asking about you." Asha said as she left with Jinora again._

" _Your coworker?" Tenzin asked lightly._

" _Mmm, he and I taught at the school together. We were are also ah friends with benefits." Lin told him watching his expression from across the room._

_His expression was a little darker and he let out a half grunt at the news. "How long were you together?" His tone is almost hostile._

" _We weren't together, no one knew. We were barely even friends with benefits." Lin rolled her eyes at him. He had always had an overprotective streak when it came to her._

" _Are you sure?" He asked and saw and he should have stopped pushing while he was ahead._

" _Yes Tenzin!" She snapped at him. "I'm fucking you now aren't I?"_

" _Yes"_

" _Then he doesn't matter because he's not you." He looks away and Lin counts it as a win. "You know you were married and I didn't have a problem with it."Lin grumbled at him._

_Tenzin got up and moved to hug her from behind. "What can I say you're a better person than me."_

" _Get off me Ten" Lin grumbles half heartedly but she doesn't try to shake him off "You're slowing me down." but she leans back into him as she sorting through clothes. "Do you remember that school dance we went to right before the ember island trip?" Lin asked him after a beat._

_He nodded into her shoulder. "You pouted the whole time because I was dancing with everyone else but never had the balls to ask me to dance. I was mad at you for being an ass the whole night."_

" _Yes but when I finally did tell you. You kissed me so I'd say I won in the end." He drops a kiss on her shoulder and can practically feel her roll her eyes._

" _Doesn't the air nomads have some saying about worldly possession and all." Lin asks rhetorically._

" _You are anything but worldly"_

_Lin stops folding clothes to twist in his arms at that one. "Really?" She asks, raising an unimpressed eyebrow. "Spirits I forgot how sappy you were." She rolls her eyes at him. He just grins at her and kisses her lightly._

_She shakes her head at him. "Don't mention any of that to Asha I never told her about him." Lin warned, poking him in his chest._

" _Believe me I want to forget he exists." Tenzin mutters._

" _Don't worry he's not going to know you exist either." Lin says going back to her task._

_She can feel him tense at that. "Why not?"_

" _Relax," she chides him. "I never told anyone here I lost my memory."_

" _Why not?" Tenzin's voice now filled with intrigue and a hint of concern and he stops her to make her look at him._

" _I only told Chief Shun. Didn't want to show weakness" she mumbled and tried to turn back around._

 _But he tightened his grip on her waist. "You are the strongest person in the world for even surviving that explosion._ " _He kisses her cheek._

" _You're just saying that to get in my pants later." Lin chuckles at him._

_Tenzin grins and drops his head to her ear and murmurs. "My dear, I was already going to do that anyways" he bites back a groan at the elbow that hits his ribs but Lin's laughing lightly so it doesn't matter._

* * *

They had returned after that Lin would mostly stay in the city and Tenzin joined her most of the time but she never minded him staying at the island and would occasionally stay too. Her and Ikki started off rough and had taken a year for either to figure each other out. She was unhappy with everyone over the whole ordeal. Tenzin and Pema for lying to her and then splitting up, Lin for being the reason, Jinora and Asha for being okay with it. Meelo was caught in between all of this, sometimes siding with Jinora and sometimes siding with Ikki.

_Finally she had snapped and had it out with the twelve year old on the issue head on. Up until then Lin had deferred to Pema and Tenzin to deal with her moods. They had all the kids minus Rohan as he was too young at the southern air temple during the winter. Jinora and Asha had quickly become close during their time at the western air temple, but neither had spent much time with any of their younger siblings nor had Lin and now she was starting to see that as a mistake. Meelo was just happy to have fun and make fun of Tenzin as Jinora and Asha's favorite pastime was to team up on their dad, which Lin found hilarious. Ikki on the other hand was clearly left out of this. Asha was too old to get into it with the twelve year old and Jinora mostly didn't bother either but Meelo was a different story. She and Meelo had a huge fight finally, that culminated in both of them bending at each other. She had watched Tenzin handle it when the rest of them came running out to see what was going on. Maybe unsurprisingly Ikki threw him not being home as much in his face. That was when it was clear to her that it was about time she talked with the girl._

" _Come on kid." Lin said when she opened the door to her room. "Let's go for a walk."_

_Ikki was lying on her bed bouncing a ball of the walk. "Dad send you here?" She muttered._

" _Your father doesn't know I'm here and he won't. Get up." She says leaning casually against the door frame._

" _Why? He already yelled at me. You were there you know." The girl mutters._

_Lin shrugs. "Wasn't planning on yelling at you." she says nonchalantly. "Come on." Ikki makes a dramatic effort to huff and groan at every possible opportunity as she follows Lin down the temple to one of the lower, more out of the way balconies. Lin leans over the rail looking out at the snow covered valley below. Ikki crosses her arms and scowls._

" _Did anyone ever tell you how I got my scars?" Lin asks, still looking out at the snow. She waits a beat for a reply but doesn't expect one and doesn't get one._

" _My sister split my face open after robbing a bank." She turns around to see Ikki's face this time. Ikki knew Su before Lin came back and Ikki actually likes Su, so it is complete surprise that registers on her face at the news._

" _What? Why did she do that?" She asks there no more hostility in her tone, only genuine curiosity._

_Lin sighs, in truth she doesn't have that great an idea either, only a guess. "She was acting out to spite our mom, I think."_

" _Why would she want to do that?" Ikki asks. Lin knows the kids have mostly only heard about fun Toph as Lin thinks about her as not the reality of her as a mother most of the time._

" _Our mom, she wasn't a great mother. I loved her but she had many shortcomings. She ran away from home younger than you are now and never had great parents either. She worked a lot, wasn't around much. She was fun but she didn't care if we went to school or behaved. The best parental figure we had was Katara and Aang when he was around." Lin explains to her._

_Ikki narrows her eyes now. "I'm not acting out to spite you or dad." that wasn't Lin's point in telling her about the scars, but it was good to hear anyway._

" _I know, " Lin says. "But that's neither here nor there. The point is I don't care what your brother says to you, it's not a reason to attack him. You want to fight then spar but you two were both actually fighting." Lin says firmly._

" _Fine. I know." the girl mumbles kicking at the ground. "I'm still not talking to him though."_

" _One day you'll forgive him and everyone else." Lin says shaking her head and the corners of her lips tug upwards at the girl's navitae about grudges._

" _Maybe" Ikki snorts clearly not believing her. "And I don't have a grudge against anyone else! Why does everyone keep saying that." she snapps going back to defensive and petulant._

_Lin just raises an eyebrow at her. "I don't think you've ever really been mad at any of us. You were just hurt and felt like your world was changing too quickly. And you're more than welcome to hate me if you need to Ikki. I won't mind and I'll make sure your parents won't. Just don't ever take it out on them, they're doing their best." Lin tells her hoping that maybe one part of that would stick with the girl._

_She snorts in responses. "Yeah I alright." she says doubtfully._

" _Whether you believe it or not Ikki. I was the one most against Tenzin leaving your mother. Not that I don't love him but I raised a kid on my own. I raised my sister growing up. I never knew my father, my sister never knew her and my daughter didn't know her until she was twenty. Ikki that last thing a kid needs is an absent parent believe me I know that."_

" _And yet here you are," Ikki says dryly._

" _If I still said no, your mother was going to leave anyway." Lin sighed. This was the conversation she had been avoiding having with the girl. "Tenzin,- your mother wasn't going to stay with your dad if he didn't love her the same way he had loved me." Lin said trying to find the words actually articulate it. "Look, like I said you can hate me. I hated everyone my mom slept with. Don't take it out on anyone else."_

" _I don't hate you. Weren't you listening? I just-" Ikki paused trying to figure out want to say and tried to calm down and not lose her composure._

_Lin watches Ikki fidget trying to find words and a light bulb goes off for her. "You feel like you've been forgotten or ignored." she says. "That's what you meant 'you haven't been around.'" She quotes Ikki's words to her dad back to her._

" _Well, you haven't none of you have. Hell, you might be the one that paid the most attention if what you said is true." Ikki said she was starting to get worked up but it wasn't anger rather pent up emotion._

_Lin decided to ignore the swearing. "We left and in what, two weeks your life had completely changed." Lin nodded along with Ikki. "I'm sorry, kid."_

" _I don't mind you and dad together, well, I did at first but not now. It's just that Asha and Jinora have their own lives and Rohan and Meelo need a lot of attention and then there's me." She says looking down slightly._

" _You're almost thirteen, too old to be babied and too young to be on your own." Lin nods in sympathy. She knew some Ikki didn't though her birthday was only two week away; they were going back to Air Temple island to celebrate with everyone. Tenzin was going to take Ikki to get her Bison by herself but that was a surprise. "Kid, I'm sorry. But one, tell me or your parents next time and two I promise you none of us forget about you. You just have to hang in there okay." Lin says patting the girls shoulder knowing that anymore comfort would likely not be welcomed. The girl had given her only a nod at the time before leaving, but two weeks later Ikki had caught her eye and smiled._

* * *

Her and Pema by contrast got on well after that initial trip away. Pema and her got on so well that Tenzin jokes he should worry about that. Pema had seemed to come into her own in recent years working with Bolin on an orphanage in the city. She also seemed to enjoy having a much quieter island with Korra and friends gone, not nearly as many airbenders and Tenzin and the kids self sufficient, she had told Lin that it was nice to do things for her occasionally. Lin still felt awkward around her sometimes, especially with Tenzin but Pema always assured her she was fine with it. The younger woman was much more intuitive than Lin had first given her credit for picking up on that. She knew her relationship with Tenzin had been different than the one he had had with Pema, nearly everyone had told her that. Tenzin was different, too, much more playful and affectionate with her. That was always how their relationship had always been. Pema however seemed thrilled with this as proof she had made the right decision not to stay and instead to be an independent modern woman as she had called it.

Lin went down to the docks with the rest of the family to greet the fire nation's first family. Katara and Kya had arrived yesterday, Lin was always happy to see them. No matter what Tenzin said Kya was fun to have around and it was always good to see Katara.

"Katara," Zuko called as soon as he walked slowly down the ram with his cane. "I see you brought with you the south's polar weather." he jested. It was early winter but the wind had a deep bite to it that said winter is here to stay.

"Well, I had to balance out whatever hot air you were bringing." she teased back as the two lifelong friends embraced.

"Personally, I was hoping for warm weather." Izumi mutters to Bumi, Kya, Tenzin and Lin as she greets them.

"I can always warm you up princess." Bumi quips lightly like when they were kids.

"Careful, it's firelord." she corrects him patronizing him mockly.

"Of course your royal fire, please forgive my brother's stupidity." Kya teases bowing low, playing along. Lin and Tenzin are laughing at them as Izumi shoves them both before giving Lin and Tenzin a hug.

"It's good to see you two _normal_ people." She shot towards the oldest two. Her two kids Iroh and Ursa are standing off to the side with her and Tenzin's kids watching the older adults interact.

"Is everyone here?" Izumi asks after everyone finally finishes greetings.

"No, Su's late." Lin says crossing her arms. "Big surprise that is, but she was supposed to beat you here this morning."

"Well it's Su the world goes at her time." Kya says. They move up to the house just in time to beat the first snowflakes to fall.

* * *

It's almost dinner time when Su finally decided to grace them with her presence. "Well well look who finally showed up" Lin says coming out to greet them with Kya on her heels.

"Hey! it was the storm." Su said indignantly.

Lin looks to Bataar who shakes his head no, behind his wife's back, but wisely stays quiet. Lin and Kya share a look. "Uh huh" Kya says, not believing her for a second. They moved inside to the living room. Lin was standing behind the armchair Bumi was sitting in listening to the conversation going on when Tenzin came up behind her. He puts a hand on her waist and hands Bumi and her the drinks he retrieved. "We should renew our vows." he says absently.

Lin had no idea where that came from and turned her head to give him a weird look as if to say why.

"We've been married for almost 30 years." He defended seeing the look he was getting from her.

Lin crossed her arms and rolled her eyes at him. "I think you're forgetting the twenty years when I forget you existed."

Tenzin in turn rolled her eyes at her. "We've been together for 30 years though that's long enough." He says.

That was true, but Lin wasn't giving in that easy because she hated weddings including her own. "Wasn't it hard enough to get me to say yes the first time." She sniffs.

"Yeah, didn't it take you like five years to propose the first time." Bumi chimes in. He had been listening in the whole time occasionally making a face at something one of them said.

Lin narrows her eyes at him. "Wait, you had the engagement necklace for five years before we got married, you only said 'for a while'." she quotes back at him and hears Bumi snickering at getting his brother in trouble.

"Yes well, I never thought you'd agree seeing as you shot down the idea every time I brought it up." Tenzin says, returning her gaze.

Lin was aware that most of the people around them had begun to listen in on them now. Lin however wasn't going to let him get away with that "Hey! I was the one that proposed not you. You never did, remember." Lin reminds him.

"I'd hardly say that counted as a proposal." Tenzin says crossing his own arms.

Lin can hear Asha and Bumi snickering at their banter. "Well it's still more than you did." Lin shots back at him.

Tenzin seemed to take that as a challenge. "Well I'll do it now, then we can renew our vows." He knelt but he was smirking at her well aware of the game they were playing and he wanted to win.

"Your about thirty years and one kid too late." Lin said crossing her arms and glaring trying to be as unimpressed as possible. But she could feel a smile pulling at her own lips.

Tenzin's grin spread. "Thirty years? I thought you said the twenty you lost your memory didn't count." Lin nearly shoves him over at that, but he just laughs and pulls himself up and cups her face and kisses her. He pulls away and Lin turns to the slow clap that their siblings are giving them.

"Bravo" Su deadpanned and Lin scowled at her.

Tenzin pulls her into his side and she doesn't have to look to know he's smiling over her head. "I love you," he says.

Lin doesn't fight the smile this time but shakes her head anyway. "I love you too. Believe me, airhead that is the only reason I haven't off-ed you yet." He just laughs good naturally and kisses her temple. She sinks into his embrace and is content at watching everyone else going back to their conversation and is grateful to have this family back after twenty years on her own. She wouldn't trade these people for anything in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end. Hope you guys enjoyed it!


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